ESTERO, Fla — People who are fully vaccinated can start planning small 'get-togethers' indoors once again according to new guidelines from the Centers for Disease Control.
"I think that people can start feeling comfortable that we now have three vaccines that are going to be available," says Robert Hawks, the Director of the Physicians Assistants Program at Florida Gulf Coast University.
"If you’ve received either the Pfizer or Moderna vaccine, both doses, and it has been two weeks since your second dose then you are considered fully vaccinated," says Hawkes.
Once the two weeks have passed, the CDC says it is safe for some pre-COVID 19 freedoms can return like gathering indoors with other fully vaccinated people as well as with those who are at low-risk for severe disease without masks or social distancing.
When it comes to getting back to graduations or concerts indoors without COVID-19 restrictions, Hawkes says we are not quite ready.
"One of the things, when the CDC came out today, is they said still don’t gather in large or medium-sized groups. Getting back to large groups of a thousand or a couple thousand people probably isn’t going to happen in the short-term," says Hawkes.
Management at Hertz Arena in Estero says for their upcoming events like hockey games and performances like Disney On Ice, they will continue with current protocols of mandating masks and limiting arena capacity to 60 percent indoors.
