© Joey Hadden/Insider
Joey Hadden/Insider
- The CDC says fully-vaccinated Americans still have to wear masks on public transit.
- This covers domestic plane, train, and bus journeys, and international travel starting or ending in the US.
- New CDC guidelines published Thursday allow vaccinated people to remove masks in most indoor settings.
- See more stories on Insider's business page.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) said Thursday that fully-vaccinated Americans don't have to wear masks indoors, provided individual states and businesses allow that - but the guidelines don't apply to public transit.
Fully-vaccinated people will still have to wear a mask on public transit, including planes, trains, and buses, the CDC said, because the current Transport Security Administration (TSA) mask mandate isn't due to expire until September 13.
This covers transport into, within, or out of the US, as well as in transport hubs such as airports and stations.
But Americans traveling within the US who have been fully vaccinated no longer need to quarantine or get tested before or after travel, the CDC said. And fully-vaccinated Americans traveling overseas don't need to get tested before leaving the US, unless their destination requires it. They should still get tested once they arrive back in the US, but they don't need to quarantine, the CDC said.
The CDC's new guidelines also say people still need to follow guidance set by their workplace or local businesses.
Israel and many European countries have either rolled out or are mulling the use of vaccine passports, which would make it easier for transport companies, alongside venues like restaurants and gyms, to identify who has been vaccinated.
But the US government said that it won't introduce federally-mandated vaccine passports. Some states, including Arizona, Montana, Idaho, Texas, Florida, and Utah, have banned the passports, with Arizona Gov. Doug Ducey saying that people "should not be required by the government to share their private medical information."
This makes it tricky for the transport companies that are requiring guests and staff to be vaccinated. Norwegian Cruise Line, which is mandating vaccines for travelers and crew, threatened to stop sailing out of Florida after Gov. Ron DeSantis' issued an executive order banning vaccine passports.