The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) said Friday that fully vaccinated people can safely travel within the United States without getting tested before or after their journeys.
CDC Director Rochelle Walensky announced the new guidelines during the White House COVID-19 response team briefing and was quick to add the CDC still does not recommend nonessential travel for people who are not fully vaccinated.
The CDC also recommends fully vaccinated travelers continue to wear masks, maintain 2 meters of social distance and wash their hands regularly.
Walensky was asked if the new guidelines suggest she does not still feel the sense of “impending doom” she described earlier this week regarding the pandemic.
The CDC director said the new travel guidelines are only for fully vaccinated people. And, she said, the average daily rate of new COVID-19 cases over the last seven days has continued to rise and is now around 62,000 new cases each day. She said Friday, there were 64,000 new cases, reflecting an 8% increase in the daily rate.
Walensky said that with only 20% of the U.S. adult population fully vaccinated, she continues to worry that the United States still has a lot to do to control the pandemic.
Meanwhile, top presidential adviser on COVID-19 Anthony Fauci was asked how he deals with personal attacks from the public and some members of Congress.
On her Twitter account Thursday, Georgia Republican Congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Green called for Fauci to be fired, without giving a specific reason.
Fauci said his job is too important to let those comments make him lose focus on the pandemic.
