Here's what the CDC says fully vaccinated people have the freedom to do

Over 60 million Americans have received at least one dose of the COVID-19 vaccine, increasing hope that the United States may soon be able to loosen restrictions and reopen more businesses. But in the meantime, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is offering new guidance for the 31 million individuals who have been fully vaccinated.

The new recommendations grant more freedoms to fully vaccinated people, including the ability to interact with other fully vaccinated people freely as well as the ability to hold indoor gatherings with unvaccinated people — without masks — as long as they are in a single-family household and do not have high-risk factors for COVID-19.

In a press conference on Monday, CDC Director Dr. Rochelle Walensky said the recommendations are a step forward. "We know that people want to get vaccinated so they can get back to doing the things they enjoy with the people they love," Walensky said. But she also warned that a vaccine is not a license to drop all precautions. "There are some activities that fully vaccinated people can begin to resume now in the privacy of their own homes. Everyone, even those who are vaccinated, should continue with all mitigation strategies when in public settings."

It's worth noting, that the CDC says it may take "a few weeks" after vaccination for an individual to gain immunity. But as the U.S. vaccination program marches forward, here's what fully vaccinated people need to know.

Fully vaccinated people can interact indoors together without masks or physical distancing

One of the CDC's first pieces of guidance involves fully vaccinated people interacting with one another. In these cases, the organization says that fully vaccinated people can "visit with other fully vaccinated people indoors without wearing a mask or physical distancing." This means that vaccinated teachers, for example, will be able to see one another indoors without the use of masks, unless of course students are present.

They can also meet unvaccinated people from a single household — who are low-risk — indoors

In welcome news for many Americans who have gone months, or longer, without seeing their parents or grandparents, the CDC said those who have received both vaccine shots can "visit with unvaccinated people from a single household who are at low risk for severe COVID-19 disease indoors without wearing masks or physical distancing." Risk factors for severe COVID-19 include type 2 diabetes, obesity, chronic kidney disease and weakened immune system.

After a known exposure, fully vaccinated people can "refrain from quarantine and testing" if asymptomatic

The CDC currently recommends that anyone with a known exposure to COVID-19 quarantine for 14 days, with the option of reducing the quarantine to seven days after a negative test, or 10 days without testing based on local guidelines. But now, fully vaccinated people who are exposed to someone with COVID-19 can skip both testing and quarantine — as long as they are asymptomatic.

Those who have received both vaccines still need to follow certain precautions

Although the new guidance is undeniably a step in the right direction for a nation still in the throes of a pandemic, the CDC makes clear at the end of its guidance that fully vaccinated people should not consider themselves exempt from traditional precautions that remain in place. Specifically, the organization says this group should continue to:

• Take precautions in public like wearing a well-fitted mask and physical distancing

• Wear masks, practice physical distancing and adhere to other prevention measures when visiting with unvaccinated people who are at increased risk for severe COVID-19 disease or who have an unvaccinated household member who is at increased risk for severe COVID-19 disease

• Wear masks, maintain physical distance and practice other prevention measures when visiting with unvaccinated people from multiple households

• Avoid medium- and large-sized in-person gatherings

• Get tested if experiencing COVID-19 symptoms

• Follow guidance issued by individual employers

• Follow CDC and health department travel requirements and recommendation

Experts have mixed feelings on the advice, with some saying it's "precisely what the @CDC should be doing" and others suggesting the organization "could have been more liberal"

In the wake of the guidance, many experts took to Twitter to applaud the CDC for its sound advice. "This is precisely what @CDC should be doing: cautiously balancing uncertainty with evidence and distilling it into clear, actionable guidance relevant to people's daily lives," tweeted Dr. Angela Rasmussen, a virologist and researcher at Georgetown University's Center for Global Health Science and Security. "This is a step in the right direction," added Dr. Saskia Popescu, an infection prevention specialist at George Mason University.

Dr. Amesh Adalja, a senior scholar at the Johns Hopkins Center for Health and Security, echoes their overall thoughts on the CDC's work ("I think they did a good job"), but he also believes the CDC may have been "overly cautious" in its guidance. "I think most of us individual infectious disease physicians are advising our patients to be a little bit more liberal with how they go about their lives post-vaccination," Adalja tells Yahoo Life. "Meaning that I think there's enough data emerging from Israel [on the ability of these vaccines to stop asymptomatic spread] to really be a little bit more bold with the guidance."

He points out that the guidance was specifically focused on indoor gatherings and didn't address things like reopening businesses or travel. "I think there's a lot more that would be useful for reopening — like a business owner who might want to say, 'We've got a lot of vaccinated employees and a lot of vaccinated people coming to eat here. How do we treat those people differently?' That kind of thing would be more actionable," says Adalja. "People are sort of waiting for the CDC to set the tone, and I think that type of data would have been better — trying to tie vaccination status to reopening decisions."

Still, he understands that this guidance is likely on its way. "I think the CDC is going to be more cautious like this and take baby steps and then revise them as they get more comfortable and more data."

Read more from Yahoo Life:

• Long-term effects of COVID-19 given name by experts, Fauci

• School Report Card: Texas schools encourage masks, Biden urges prioritizing teachers for vaccination

• COVID-19 spreads easily in gyms, CDC finds. Here's how you can work out safely indoors.

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