Dr. Grant Colfax shares new details on the COVID-19 pandemic in San Francisco on Friday, April 17, 2020.
SAN FRANCISCO - San Francisco Department of Public Health announced on Friday it is aligning with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention guidelines for those who are fully vaccinated against COVID-19.
The announcement includes guidance on gathering indoors and comes after the state also aligned itself with the CDC on what is allowable behavior for vaccinated people.
"We are now at a point in this pandemic where fully vaccinated San Franciscans can attend small indoor gatherings with other fully vaccinated friends and loved ones without wearing masks or physical distancing or with unvaccinated people from one household who are at low risk of severe illness from COVID-19," San Francisco Director of Health Dr. Grant Colfax's statement read.
The city's health department explains that fully vaccinated means two weeks have passed since your second dose of the Pfizer-BioNTech or Moderna shot. Or that two weeks have passed since you received the single dose Johnson & Johnson vaccination. However, the J&J vaccine has been put on pause due to rare cases of blood clots.
Colfax points out that while you may be fully vaccinated, you can still carry and transmit the disease adding that you should be mindful of the risk that exposure may have on the people around you. He also stresses the importance of continuing to mask, practice physical distance and proper hand washing as well as limiting indoor activity with people from outside your household, especially with reports of more contagious variants.
According to state guidelines, if you are visiting an unvaccinated person at high risk for severe COVID disease, you should definitely wear a mask and physically distance.
The state health department on Friday said 50% of people 16 and older have now had their first dose of the vaccine.
City health officials cite compliance with health orders for San Francisco having the lowest COVID death rate for any major U.S. city.
As of Thursday evening the city reported 35,667 COVID cases and 513 deaths from the disease.
You can read the full health statement here.