The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention released updated guidelines Tuesday recommending that fully vaccinated people in the U.S. can now stop wearing masks outdoors unless they are in a large crowd of strangers.
The updated guidelines also say people who have not been vaccinated can go maskless when outside alone or with household members, or in small outdoor gatherings with fully vaccinated people.
The CDC recommended for most of the past year that people in the U.S. wear masks outdoors if they are within two meters of each other.
The updated guidance is part of the Biden Administration’s initiative to carefully return the country to some state of normalcy. COVID-19 has killed nearly 573,000 people, by far the most in the world.
The guidelines were relaxed after more than half of adults in the U.S. have received at least one dose of a coronavirus vaccine, and more than a third have been fully vaccinated.
