Ted Cieslak, MD, interim executive director of the UNMC Office of Health Security, and Jane Meza, PhD, interim executive director of the UNO Office of Health Security, released the following message to the campus on Tuesday.
Although masking and distancing policies remain in effect on the UNMC and UNO campuses, new guidance issued on March 8 by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) allows for some relaxation in restrictions at home. According to this new CDC guidance, people who are fully vaccinated can now safely gather indoors with other fully vaccinated people without wearing masks or social distancing. It is important to note that people are not considered fully vaccinated until two weeks after they have received the second shot of the Pfizer or Moderna vaccines (or two weeks after receiving the single-dose Johnson & Johnson vaccine).
Vaccinated people can also gather, unmasked, with people from another household who are not yet vaccinated, as long as those people are at low risk of serious illness from the virus. However, vaccinated people should continue to mask when they’re in public (including on the UNMC and UNO campuses), avoid crowds and take other precautions when gathering with unvaccinated people who are at high risk of serious illness from COVID-19.
The new guidance also allows fully vaccinated individuals to forego testing and quarantining following a known COVID-19 exposure, as long as they are not experiencing symptoms. Again, the new guidance does NOT eliminate the need to continue masking and distancing on campus. Nor does it alter CDC guidance regarding quarantine and other measures to be taken after travel.