More and more people in Knox County have been vaccinated for COVID-19.
By the end of this week, Knox Public Health will have administered more than 8,500 doses of the vaccine, the agency’s spokeswoman Pam Palm told the Mount Vernon News.
Once you have been fully vaccinated, you can gather indoors with other vaccinated people without wearing a mask, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention website reported.
“You can gather indoors with unvaccinated people from one other household (for example, visiting with relatives who all live together) without masks, unless any of those people or anyone they live with has an increased risk for severe illness from COVID-19,” the CDC said.
You are considered fully vaccinated two weeks after receiving the second dose of the Pfizer or Moderna vaccines, or two weeks after a single-dose vaccine such as the one produced by Johnson & Johnson.
“If it has been less than two weeks since your shot, or if you still need to get your second dose, you are NOT fully protected,” the centers said. “Keep taking all prevention steps until you are fully vaccinated.”
Fully vaccinated people do not need to isolate themselves or be tested if they are exposed to someone who has COVID-19, as long as they are not themselves experiencing symptoms, the CDC said.
But there are still precautions vaccinated people should take, including avoiding crowds and poorly ventilated spaces, gathering with unvaccinated people from more than one other household, and visiting with an unvaccinated person who is at increased risk of severe illness or death from COVID-19 or who lives with a person at increased risk.
“You should still delay domestic and international travel,” the CDC said.
The centers advise that individuals continue to be on the lookout for symptoms; and if you have them, get tested and stay home.
