CDC position on fully immunized individuals: details of revised guidance – Coronavirus (COVID-19)

On March 8, 2021, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention issued new interim recommendations regarding individuals who have received a full COVID-19 vaccine. As the COVID-19 vaccines become more widely distributed, the new recommendations address how to guide vaccinated people in terms of social gatherings, contact detection, and other mitigation issues in non-health care settings. The following are the main points that employers may want to know and may want to incorporate into their company’s procedures.

• The CDC’s recommendations only apply to people who are “fully vaccinated”, which the CDC defines as those who are more than two weeks old from receiving the second dose of the Pfizer-BioNTech or Moderna vaccines or the vaccine one dose.
• The proposals facilitate face-to-face requirements for people who have received the full vaccine. The CDC advises that fully vaccinated people do not have to wear masks or monitor social distance when visiting other fully vaccinated people. The CDC recommends wearing masks and taking extra care depending on the size of the collection. In particular, the CDC states that “small rounds or gatherings are likely to represent the least risk to fully vaccinated people,” although vaccinated people should be aware of the greater risks to humans. others in medium or large collections with people from multiple homes. The CDC continues to recommend that everyone be face-covered and see social distance when surrounded by unvaccinated people outside one home.
• The recommendations provide an exemption for fully vaccinated people from specific quarantine requirements. Although vaccinated people should be isolated when receiving symptoms of COVID-19, the CDC says that people without “quarantine” do not need to be vaccinated or tested after being exposed to someone. with suspicion or diagnosis of COVID-19, as their risk of the disease is low, “although these people should monitor for symptoms for 14 days after exposure and be lonely if they begin to experience symptoms. In particular, the exception to quarantine is no longer limited to the first 90 days after vaccination, as with prior instructions.
• For workers of “non-healthcare collection conditions and other high-density workplaces,” such as manufacturing environments and meat and poultry processing plants, the CDC advises that people exposed to a person with quarantine infection do not need vaccinations. , but the CDC recommends that such persons be tested after exposure and follow routine screening programs in the workplace.
• The CDC emphasizes that fully vaccinated people should continue to care in public and when surrounded by unvaccinated people outside their own families, such as wearing face cover and body distance . The CDC notes that vaccinated people should continue to “[f]ollow guidance provided by individual employers. “
• The CDC is not changing its travel guidelines for vaccinated people at this time.

For employers as well as individuals, the impact of these new proposals is profound. First, employers may want to update their protocols and schedules for contact detection and quarantine and testing requirements, while still being aware of guidance from state and local public health authorities. Second, employers may want to consider whether and how to find out which employees received the vaccine. Finally, the new proposals could lead some employers to revisit the extent to which they are encouraging or motivating employees to get vaccinated.

The content of this article is intended to provide general guidance on the subject. Specialist advice should be sought about your particular circumstances.