NEW YORK -- President Joe Biden and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said Tuesday that Americans who are fully vaccinated against the coronavirus no longer need to wear masks outdoors in most situations except in large gatherings -- a step, the president said, toward getting "life in America closer to normal" by his target date of the Fourth of July.
"Beginning today, gathering with a group of friends, in a park, going for a picnic," Biden said, addressing reporters outside the White House on what he deemed "a beautiful day" in Washington. "As long as you are vaccinated and outdoors, you can do it without wearing a mask."
Those who are unvaccinated can go outside without masks in some situations, too.
The new guidance represents another calibrated step on the road back to normal from the coronavirus pandemic that has killed more than 570,000 people in the U.S.
For most of the past year, the CDC had been advising Americans to wear masks outdoors if they are within 6 feet of one another.
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"Today, I hope, is a day when we can take another step back to the normalcy of before," CDC Director Dr. Rochelle Walensky said. "Over the past year, we have spent a lot of time telling Americans what you can't do. Today, I am going to tell you some of the things you can do, if you are fully vaccinated."
The change comes as more than half of U.S. adults -- or about 140 million people -- have received at least one dose of vaccine, and more than a third have been fully vaccinated.
Biden touted the relaxation of guidance as another reason for people to get vaccinated, urging them to move forward to protect themselves and those around them.
Biden had set July 4 as a target for when people could get together for backyard picnics with a sense of normalcy, and both the new mask guidance and his remarks were geared to encourage people to continue getting the shots.
"I ... want to thank everyone who has gotten the vaccine for doing your patriotic duty and helping us get on the path to Independence Day," Biden said in remarks on the North Lawn of the White House. He arrived at the podium wearing a mask. He returned to the White House without one, saying he did not have to put it on until he got back into the building.
The CDC, which has been cautious in its guidance during the crisis, essentially endorsed what many Americans have already been doing over the past several weeks.
Walensky cited several factors motivating the change in guidance: Falling coronavirus case rates and climbing vaccinations -- more than 37% of people over 18 are fully protected -- make outdoor settings safer than before. Indoor settings have almost 20 times the risk of transmission than outdoor ones, she noted.
If more people continue getting inoculated and case numbers drop further, she said, the CDC will release additional guidance for the fully vaccinated.
Asked how she would describe the nation's situation now compared with last month when she spoke of a feeling of "impending doom" as infections mounted, Walensky said that if the United States follows measures taken by other countries where "vaccinations continue to soar and the cases plummet, that we should be in good shape."
In addressing states that have outdoor mask requirements, Walensky said it is no longer necessary for fully vaccinated people to wear masks unless they are in crowded outdoor venues, such as stadiums and concerts, where it is hard to know who is vaccinated and who is not.
Tuesday's guidance included a chart that shows activities that fully vaccinated and unvaccinated people can do indoors and outdoors, and which ones can be done without masks. The safest activities are outdoors in small gatherings. Activities with the greatest risk are indoor settings that involve behaviors such as singing, shouting, heavy breathing, inability to wear masks or inability to maintain physical distancing, such as indoor high-intensity exercise classes.
The nearly 96 million Americans who are fully vaccinated can now forgo masks for many outdoor activities, including:
• Walking, running, hiking or biking outdoors alone or with members of your household.
• Attending a small outdoor gathering with fully vaccinated relatives and friends.
• Attending a small outdoor gathering with a mix of fully vaccinated and unvaccinated people.
• Dining at an outdoor restaurant with friends from multiple households.
Officials say some factors increase risk: crowding, time spent, lack of ventilation and high community transmission. That's why the CDC says it is safest for fully vaccinated people to continue to wear well-fitted masks in these settings, including:
• Attending a crowded outdoor event, such as a live performance, parade or sporting event.
• Visiting a barber or hair salon.
• Going to an uncrowded indoor shopping mall or museum.
• Going to an indoor movie theater.
• Attending a full-capacity service at a house of worship.
• Singing in an indoor choir.
"The examples today show that when you are fully vaccinated, you can return to many activities safely ... and begin to get back to normal," Walensky said. "And the more people who are vaccinated, the more steps we can take toward spending time with people we love, doing the things we love to enjoy. I hope this message is encouraging for you. It shows just how powerful these vaccines are."
The agency also provided guidance for fully vaccinated people in regard to working, quarantining and testing. Fully vaccinated workers no longer need to quarantine after an exposure, as long as they do not have symptoms. And fully vaccinated people without symptoms or known exposures may be exempted from routine screening tests -- a change of big significance for schools trying to plan for summer school and fall reopening.
But unvaccinated people -- defined as those who have yet to receive both doses of the Pfizer or Moderna vaccine or the one-shot Johnson & Johnson formula -- should wear masks at small outdoor gatherings that include other unvaccinated people, the CDC says. They also should keep their faces covered when dining at outdoor restaurants with friends from multiple households.
The advice to the unvaccinated applies to adults and children alike, according to the CDC. None of the covid-19 vaccines in use in the U.S. is authorized for children under 16.
"I welcome less restrictive guidelines about masking outdoors," said Linsey Marr, an aerosol scientist at Virginia Tech. "We know that transmission outdoors is much less likely to occur than indoors, because the virus cannot accumulate in the air outdoors. It'll become rapidly diluted."
But the guidelines themselves, which outline different masking recommendations for a variety of scenarios, seem overly complex, she said.
Americans have been whipsawed on the issue of mask-wearing advice since the beginning of the pandemic, when top health officials said people did not need them -- in part because of severe shortages of protective gear for health care workers on the front lines.
And mask restrictions since then have been a patchwork from state to state, despite growing evidence of a mask's protection for individuals and those around them.
Walensky said the CDC guidance should be a model for states in setting their mask-wearing requirements.
STATES' MANDATES
The CDC's announcement comes as some states have already started to ease mask mandates and other coronavirus-related restrictions.
Gov. John Bel Edwards on Tuesday said he is partially lifting Louisiana's statewide mask mandate.
The Democratic governor announced that he's limiting the face covering requirement to schools, hospitals, clinics and other specific locations.
The new rules starting today will require people in Louisiana to wear masks on public transit and in health care facilities, day care centers , K-12 schools, colleges and some state buildings. Local officials can enact their own mandates.
Edwards' decision to roll back the mask mandate he enacted in July is at odds with the recommendations of the CDC, but it puts him more in line with other Southern state leaders.
Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee declared Tuesday that covid-19 is no longer a statewide public health crisis, saying he is removing the option for most local governments to mandate masks in public and urging a few big counties with restrictions like mask requirements to remove them on their own by Memorial Day.
Tennessee joined a number of states peeling away their remaining covid-19 restrictions. At least six states -- Alabama, Iowa, Mississippi, Montana, North Dakota and Texas -- have lifted mask mandates, though some states never implemented them. In Texas, businesses reopened at 100% capacity last month.
Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear, a Democrat, on Monday cleared groups of fewer than 1,000 people to gather outside without masks.
Massachusetts Gov. Charlie Baker, a Republican, on Tuesday said his state's rule requiring masks outdoors would expire Friday, except in situations where social distancing is impossible.
Information for this article was contributed by Mike Stobbe, Carla K. Johnson, Jonathan Mattise, Adrian Sainz and staff members of The Associated Press; by Lena H. Sun, Isaac Stanley-Becker and Ben Guarino of The Washington Post; and by Roni Caryn Rabin, Emily Anthes and Sheryl Gay Stolberg of The New York Times.