The Pennsylvania Department of Health has amended its mask mandate, updating guidance for fully vaccinated residents to fall in line with federal guidelines, officials said Monday.
A previous state order went into effect that loosened mask restrictions in certain circumstances.
“The vaccines that are currently available across the state and country are highly effective,” Acting Secretary of Health Alison Beam said in a statement, noting that early research has shown the vaccines can prevent asymptomatic infection and lessen the likelihood one can spread the virus.
“However, there is still more to learn about how long protection lasts and how much vaccines protect against new variants of the virus,” Beam said, “so some prevention measures will continue to be in place for all people, regardless of their vaccination.”
The new Centers for Disease Control and Prevention orders say that people who are fully vaccinated can:
- Visit with other fully vaccinated people indoors without wearing masks or physical distancing,
- Visit with unvaccinated people from a single household who are at low risk for severe symptoms without masks or physical distancing, and refrain from quarantine and testing following a known exposure so long as they remain asymptomatic.
Beam said it’s important for those who are fully vaccinated to continue following guidelines when they are with unvaccinated people who are at a higher risk of severe illness or who have a household member at an increased risk.
Guidelines still advise against gatherings of more than a few people and require a mask and physical distancing when out in public. Anyone with symptoms should still get tested, Beam said.
People are considered fully vaccinated when they are two weeks out from the second dose in a two-shot series or two weeks after they’ve received a single-dose vaccine.
Across the state, more than 1.5 million people are fully vaccinated against covid-19 and nearly 2.9 million are partially vaccinated. Providers have administered 4.3 million doses.
As of Saturday, 24,789 people in Pennsylvania have died from the virus since the pandemic began. More than 988,000 people statewide have contracted the virus since last March.
