As vaccines become more available, health and safety requirements have continued to see modifications moving forward.

While mask mandates have been extended in some settings, they have been loosened in others, like outdoors. Yet, they could see even more changes soon in Florida, according to a few healthcare professionals.

Florida Health Secretary and Surgeon General, Scott Rivkees, has suggested that fully vaccinated Florida residents are able to go maskless in public, according to USA Today. At this time, only 34% of the Florida population has been fully vaccinated, though that equates to nearly nine million individuals.

It’s important to note that the recent recommendation from the CDC has stated that fully vaccinated people no longer need to wear a mask outdoors unless they are in a crowd. The Surgeon General’s suggestion differs from the CDC requirement, in that the CDC still believes that “fully vaccinated people should continue to wear a mask” in public spaces that are indoors.

Despite the fact that the vaccination status and risk rate of others in public areas isn’t known, Rivkees has stated that the vaccines protect people from the spread of the virus, diminish hospitalizations and deaths, and that Florida has an abundance of vaccines to provide to eligible adults. This new advisory also supports Florida’s government offices to resume business in-person.

Rivkees suggested that continuous COVID-19 restrictions could have “adverse and unintended consequences” if they don’t have an end date in sight. The state advisory has removed the requirements for face coverings both indoors and outdoors where social distancing isn’t possible, also allowing people to attend social and recreational gatherings with a few limits.

However, Jason Salemi, an epidemiology professor at the College of Public Health at the University of South Florida, thinks it’s important to consider both the CDC’s recommendations as well as adding “specificity” to the Surgeon General’s ideas moving forward.

Salemi believes it’s crucial to consider when fully vaccinated people go to indoor public settings with unfamiliar individuals and unvaccinated people, as well as densely packed places both indoors and outdoors. He continued, “It could be that the ‘limited circumstances’ are directly in line with current CDC recommendations, but we would need some additional clarification to know for certain.”

He said that more availability of the vaccine would help, expressing, “we need to think only of breaking down all barriers to people getting vaccinated, including misinformation and disinformation, and incentivizing people taking this all-important steps to getting ourselves loose from the tight grip of this pandemic.”

At this time, the CDC hasn’t changed its recent recommendation. We’ll be sure to keep you updated on everything you need to know moving forward! Stay tuned to AllEars for the latest news!

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