What You Should and Shouldn’t Do Once You’re Fully Vaccinated

If you've been fully vaccinated you can start to do some things you haven't done since the coronavirus pandemic began.

The CDC says after you’ve been fully vaccinated against COVID-19, you should keep taking precautions—like wearing a mask, social distancing and avoiding crowds and poorly ventilated spaces until they knows more. But there are some things you can do.

What You Can Start to Do

• You can gather indoors with fully vaccinated people without wearing a mask or staying 6 feet apart.
• You can gather indoors with unvaccinated people of any age from one other household without masks or staying 6 feet apart, unless any of those people or anyone they live with has an increased risk for severe illness from COVID-19.
• If you travel in the United States, you do not need to get tested before or after travel or self-quarantine.
• Pay close attention before traveling outside the United States.
  • You don't need to get tested before leaving the United States unless your destination requires it.
  • You still need to show a negative test result or documentation of recovery from COVID-19 before boarding a flight to the United States.
  • You should still get tested 3-5 days after international travel.
  • You don't need to self-quarantine after arriving in the United States.
• If you’ve been around someone who has COVID-19, you do not need to stay away from others or get tested unless you have symptoms.

What You Should Keep Doing

• You should still wear a mask, practice social distancing, avoid crowds and poorly ventilated spaces.
• You should still avoid medium or large-sized gatherings.
• If you travel, you will still be required to wear a mask on planes, buses, trains, and other forms of public transportation. Fully vaccinated international travelers arriving in the United States are still required to get tested within 3 days of their flight (or show documentation of recovery from COVID-19 in the past 3 months) and should still get tested 3-5 days after their trip.
• You should still watch out for symptoms of COVID-19, especially if you’ve been around someone who is sick.
• You will still need to follow guidance at your workplace.

The CDC is still learning how effective the vaccines are against variants of the virus. Early data show the vaccines may work against some variants but could be less effective against others.