Grundy County provides CDC interim public health recommendations for fully vaccinated people

MORRIS – The Grundy County Health Department announced Monday in a news release that it would adopt guidelines issued last week by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention that fully vaccinated individuals wear masks indoors in areas with substantial or high transmission of COVID-19. Substantial transmission is defined as at least 50 cases per 100,000 people over the past seven days, while high transmission is defined as 100 or more new cases per 100,000 people over the past seven days.

The CDC also recommended universal indoor masking for all teachers, staff, students, and visitors to schools, regardless of vaccination status

Monday’s data shows that Grundy and surrounding communities are currently experiencing a substantial level of community transmission. Grundy County residents may visit covid.cdc.gov/covid-data-tracker/#county-view for the current level of community transition.

The following recommendations apply to non-health care settings.

Per the CDC, fully vaccinated people can:

• Participate in many of the activities that they did before the pandemic; for some of these activities, they may choose to wear a mask.

• Resume domestic travel and refrain from testing before or after travel and from self-quarantine after travel.

• Refrain from testing before leaving the U.S. for international travel (unless required by the destination) and refrain from self-quarantine after arriving back in the U.S.

• Refrain from routine screening testing if feasible.

Infections happen in only a small proportion of people who are fully vaccinated, even with the delta variant. However, preliminary evidence suggests that fully vaccinated people who do become infected with the delta variant can spread the virus to others. To reduce their risk of becoming infected with the delta variant and potentially spreading it to others, the CDC recommended that fully vaccinated people:

• Wear a mask in public indoor settings if they are in an area of substantial or high transmission.

• Choose to mask regardless of the level of transmission, particularly if they or someone in their household is immunocompromised or at increased risk for severe disease or if someone in their household is unvaccinated. People who are at increased risk for severe disease include older adults and those who have certain medical conditions, such as diabetes, overweight or obesity, and heart conditions.

• Get tested if experiencing COVID-19 symptoms.

• Get tested three to five days after a known exposure to someone with suspected or confirmed COVID-19 and wear a mask in public indoor settings for 14 days after exposure or until a negative test result.

• Isolate if they have tested positive for COVID-19 in the prior 10 days or are experiencing COVID-19 symptoms.

• Follow any applicable federal, state, local, tribal or territorial laws, rules and regulations.

People who are immunocompromised should be counseled about the potential for reduced immune responses to COVID-19 vaccines and to follow current prevention measures (including wearing a mask, staying 6 feet apart from others they don’t live with, and avoiding crowds and poorly ventilated indoor spaces) regardless of their vaccination status to protect themselves against COVID-19 until advised otherwise by their health care provider.

The number of new COVID-19 cases per 100,000 residents in Grundy County has risen from two during the week of June 13-19 to 27 during the week of July 11-17 and 57 during the week of July 18-24. The test positivity rate was 0.8% during the week of June 13-19 and increased to 4.5% the week of July 18-24.

The CDC’s full guidance can be found at cdc.gov/coronavirus.