Newsom says vaccinated Californians can roam mask-free outdoors

OAKLAND, Calif. (KTVU) - Gov. Gavin Newsom on Tuesday announced that California is aligning with new federal guidelines to allow fully vaccinated residents to roam free outdoors without masks unless they are in a large group. 

The news comes hours after the Center for Disease Control updated guidance on activities that fully vaccinated Americans can resume.

Nesom said that California has "administered 29+ million vaccines & have the lowest positivity rate and case rate in the nation."

President Joe Biden said the guidance is the next step in getting back to some sense of normalcy and serves as "another reason to go get vaccinated now."

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.

"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 changes 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.