Experts urge continued caution as CDC declares people vaccinated against Covid-19 are at low risk while traveling

In the continued move toward a sense of normalcy in the Covid-19 pandemic, the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention announced Friday that fully vaccinated people can travel at low risk to themselves.

The agency said that as long as coronavirus precautions are taken, including mask wearing, fully vaccinated people can travel within the United States without first getting tested for Covid-19 or self-quarantining following trips.

The CDC considers someone fully vaccinated two weeks after receiving the last required dose of the Covid-19 vaccine.

It has been nearly 109 days since the first Covid-19 vaccine shot was administered in the US, and nearly 102 million people in the country have since received at least one dose, the agency said. With more than 30.6 million people having been infected with the virus and 554,074 people who have died of it, experts and officials are racing to get the population vaccinated before a possible fourth surge of cases.

And though progress is being made with President Joe Biden saying Friday that a record 20 million vaccine doses were administered this week, health experts warn that more progress is needed before all Americans can consider the fight against the pandemic over.

The CDC still advises anyone who has not received the vaccine to avoid travel. Dr. Rochelle Walensky, director of the CDC, said she is still concerned about the pandemic and advises against non-essential travel altogether.

“I still continue to worry that with 80% of the population unvaccinated that we still have a lot of work to do to control this pandemic,” Walensky said.

On Friday, the Transportation Security Administration screened 1,580,785 people at airports, surpassing last Sunday’s record during the pandemic of 1.57 million travelers, according to the agency.

Friday was the 23rd straight day with more than one million air travelers, particularly during spring break.

CDC updating guidance as science evolves

The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention will continue to monitor Covid-19 data and update its travel guidance as the science evolves, Walensky said during a virtual White House briefing on Friday.

“The science on Covid-19 is constantly evolving. We will continue to monitor the evidence and provide updates as we learn more. With so many people still unvaccinated, it is important that everyone — regardless of vaccination status — continue to take prevention measures in public and adhere to our guidance on ways to reduce the spread of Covid-19,” Walensky said. “Wear a mask, socially distance, avoid crowds and poorly ventilated spaces, and wash your hands frequently.”

New guidance was also released Friday for cruise ship operators. The ships, which were early sites of the virus’ outbreaks, will have to operate practice cruises with volunteers before taking on paying customers, the CDC said.

Cruise ship operators will have to report coronavirus cases every day, instead of weekly, the CDC says in the new guidance. They also have to make vaccination of crew and port staff part of their plans.

You asked, we’re answering: Your top questions about Covid-19 and vaccines

States expand eligibility, fearing a surge

CNN medical analyst Leana Wen said she fears a fourth surge of the virus’ in the US as states lift precautions and variants continue to spread. And some state leaders share her concern.

“It’s clear that in Oregon, and across the country, the fourth surge of this virus is at our doorstep,” Oregon Gov. Kate Brown said. “While Oregon’s case numbers, fortunately, haven’t matched those of other states seeing large spikes, our numbers are rising.”

“I know we’re all fed up with a pandemic, physical distancing and mask wearing, but we are in the last few miles of the marathon,” Brown said.

And with cases rising in Vermont, the state’s Health Commissioner Dr. Mark Levine said he is “very concerned” that hospitalizations and deaths will follow.

With cases numbers increasing in West Virginia, the state expanded Covid-19 vaccine eligibility to all residents 16 and older, Gov. Jim Justice said Friday.

Alabama will also expand vaccine access to all 16 and older residents starting April 5, Gov. Kay Ivey said Friday.

“Truly, this vaccine is our ticket back to normal life. We are so close to getting Covid-19 in the rearview, and until then, we should all keep wearing our masks, get vaccinated and use the common sense the good Lord gave us,” the governor said in a press release.

Indeed, Dr. Anthony Fauci said Saturday that people need to continue wearing masks — even as more Americans are getting vaccinated — until the science shows otherwise.

“It is likely that if you are vaccinated, that you are not going to spread infection, if you get infected without any symptoms. There’s no doubt about that,” Fauci said in a Fox News interview. “There are studies that are coming online now, that are going to definitively prove that.”

He added, “That’s the reason why we say when that happens, we’ll pull back on the recommendation of saying people who are vaccinated should continue to wear masks. You want to be conservative on the side of saying, wait until we get data, where we can definitively prove that.”

Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, said there are variables at play that make it difficult to say whether and when Americans will be able to relax on mask wearing.

“If we get a major surge and we have a continuation of an increase in cases, it is conceivable that we may be having to wear masks in 2022,” he said. “But if we continue to get people vaccinated, and we get the overwhelming majority of people together with those that have been infected and the level of infection goes way down, we very likely will not have to.”

Michigan spread may foreshadow what’s to come elsewhere

The current surge of coronavirus cases in Michigan and parts of Canada may foreshadow what’s to come elsewhere in the US as people move around more and a contagious viral variant spreads, one expert modeling the pandemic said Saturday.

He said the more easily transmitted B.1.1.7 variant first seen in Britain is fueling the spread, but so is people’s behavior.

“B.1.1.7 surge is unfolding in the northern states of the US and Canada. The rapid increases in cases seen in Michigan may be a marker of what may unfold in other parts of the US and Canada,” population health professor Ali Mokdad of the University of Washington’s Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation (IHME) said via Twitter.

“Cases and deaths are increasing in Europe despite extensive social distancing mandates, slowly increasing vaccination rates, and reduced mobility,” Mokdad tweeted.

On Thursday, the IHME upped its estimate of how many people are likely to die from coronavirus in the US by July 1 to 609,000 deaths, from 600,000 in last week’s forecast.

The spread of new variants may be in part to blame, but so is the relaxation of social distancing and mask mandates, the IHME said.

“Overly rapid reopening, well documented in the rapid increases in mobility in the US, increases the risk of an April/May surge despite rapid scale up of vaccination,” Mokdad tweeted.

“The trajectory of the pandemic requires stronger preventive measures and depends on the behavioral response in terms of vaccine confidence, mask wearing, and avoidance of situations that pose a high risk for transmission.”

2,600 cases of a rare condition in young children

Severe illness due to Covid-19 is still extremely rare among children, according to the American Academy of Pediatrics.

Even rarer is a condition associated with Covid-19 called MIS-C. More than 2,600 children have been diagnosed with the condition, according to new numbers that the CDC have been tracking since May.

Of those 2,617 cases, 33 children with MIS-C have died.

Symptoms typically include breathing trouble, stomach problems, heart problems, lesions in the mucous membranes (such as inside the mouth), skin problems and extreme inflammation.

The numbers of cases spiked in December but have started fall off as of March. Another 557 more cases have been reported since February 8.

Scientists still have a lot of questions as to why some children develop MIS-C after they’ve had, or been exposed, to Covid-19. MIS-C cases are tracked in 48 states, Puerto Rico and Washington DC. Additional cases are under investigation.