The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention updated its domestic travel guidance on Friday to say that people who are fully vaccinated can now travel safely.
It also added that they and travelers who have recovered from COVID-19 in the past three months do not need to get tested or self-quarantine before or after travel.
Until Friday, the CDC discouraged travel and recommended that those who must travel get tested before doing so. The agency still discourages travel among those who have not been fully vaccinated.
The update comes days after CDC Director Rochelle Walensky urged people specifically to limit travel during a briefing by the White House COVID-19 Response Team, saying, “What we’re seeing now is more travel than we saw throughout the pandemic, including the Christmas and New Year’s holidays.”
Air travel numbers have been climbing, regardless of the previous advice. The Transportation Security Administration has screened over a million passengers every day since March 11.
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“I would just sort of reiterate the recommendations from CDC saying please limit travel to essential travel for the time being,” Walensky said on Monday.
In the same briefing, Walensky expressed a sense of “impending doom” as rates of new cases and hospitalizations due to the coronavirus climb again. The seven-day rolling average of new cases in the United States was over 65,600 on Thursday, according to Our World in Data, up nearly 5,000 cases per day as compared to the average a week ago.
“We have so much to look forward to, so much promise and potential of where we are, and so much reason for hope, but right now, I’m scared,” Walensky said.
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As COVID-19 cases tick up, so does the number of vaccinated people. As of Thursday, 30% of the U.S. population had received at least one dose of a coronavirus vaccine, and nearly 17% had been fully vaccinated. Over half of those 65 or older had been fully vaccinated.
