New CDC guidelines means fully vaccinated people can visit grandchildren, friends and more

HUNTSVILLE, Ala. (WAFF) - For those of you considered fully vaccinated, you may now be able to hug your grandchildren in person.

The CDC just released new health recommendations for fully vaccinated people.

Under this guideline, people are considered fully vaccinated after two weeks of getting their last COVID-19 vaccine if using Pfizer or Moderna, or two weeks after their one shot of the Johnson and Johnson vaccine.

That means fully vaccinated people can visit unvaccinated people from a single household who are at low risk for severe COVID-19 disease indoors without wearing masks or physical distancing.

Our crews spoke to people in Big Spring Park in Huntsville on Monday to find out how this new guidance impacts them.

Carlos Goode said the new CDC guidance for fully vaccinated people means his daughter will soon no longer be missing part of her family.

“We will be able to visit her grandparents all the time now once everyone gets vaccinated,” Goode said.

For passerby Jason Hambrick, he said this is about more than just future visits.

“Our parents are the foundation of the family as a whole, so when we take that away from them we are taking a part of growing up away,” Hambrick said.

UAB School of Medicine Huntsville Regional Medical Campus’s Dr. Roger Smalligan said this breakthrough is proof in the pudding.

“That’s how good these vaccines are and how much they can protect us. So we can go back to spending time with our families and not worry we are going to make one of them extremely ill,” Dr. Smalligan said. “We can have those meetings with the low risk people, the healthy children and grandchildren. The grandparents are two weeks out. They can go into that home and not worry about social distancing.”

Another major change is what happens if a vaccinated person is exposed to someone with COVID-19.

“If you are a fully vaccinated person and you are exposed to people with COVID, you don’t even have to quarantine,” Dr. Smallligan said.

Fore more information on the new post-vaccine guidelines, visit the CDC website here.

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