--- title: Fully Vaccinated People Can Travel With Low Risk of COVID-19 description: People fully vaccinated against COVID-19 can safely return to their vacations, family visits and business trips, the CDC said Friday. canonical: https://time.com/5952252/covid-19-vaccine-travel/ author: Jamie Ducharme article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2021-04-02T18:07:28.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-10-14T09:11:01.200Z article:section: Health og:title: Fully Vaccinated People Can Travel With Low Risk of COVID-19, CDC Says og:description: But it's still discouraging non-essential trips as cases rise in areas across the country og:url: https://time.com/5952252/covid-19-vaccine-travel/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltb1da9ed7df3c158f/698a18714ee262e8013188bc/covid-19-travel.jpg?branch=production&width=1024&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1024 og:image:height: 576 og:image:alt: COVID-19-Travel og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Fully Vaccinated People Can Travel With Low Risk of COVID-19, CDC Says twitter:description: But it's still discouraging non-essential trips as cases rise in areas across the country twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltb1da9ed7df3c158f/698a18714ee262e8013188bc/covid-19-travel.jpg?branch=production&width=1024&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Fully Vaccinated People Can Travel With Low Risk of COVID-19, CDC Says > Sponsored content. 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Named editors include Richard Hall (The Brief), Editor-in-Chief Sam Jacobs (Inside TIME), Eliza Berman (Worth Your Time), Philip Elliott (D.C. Brief), Justin Worland (Future Proof) and Harry Booth (In the Loop). Health Matters is written by TIME's health desk. #### How do I sign up for a TIME newsletter? Go to time.com/newsletters, choose the newsletters you want and enter your email address. There is no cost and no subscription requirement. ### Sources * TIME Newsletters: [time.com/newsletters](/c/time-nl-network-2026q3/newsletters?i=b6538827-7385-4a6d-94d6-d7235cc8c562&cr=time-nl-network-2026q3-v1) ## Video: Tracking the Vaccine: From Freezer to Front Line [Watch (HLS stream): Tracking the Vaccine: From Freezer to Front Line](https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/0dwzz5K2.m3u8) (4:28)  _Published 2021-01-20. TIME followed the vaccination process from a Walgreens freezer to a long-term care facility to see what the roll out can look like._  by [Jamie Ducharme](https://time.com/author/jamie-ducharme/)  ## Jamie Ducharme Ducharme is a contributor to TIME. Apr 2, 2021 6:07 PM UTC  by [Jamie Ducharme](https://time.com/author/jamie-ducharme/)  ## Jamie Ducharme Ducharme is a contributor to TIME. Apr 2, 2021 6:07 PM UTC The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) today announced the news many people have been waiting for: People fully vaccinated against COVID-19 can safely return to their vacations, family visits and business trips. Up until today, the CDC took a more cautious stance on travel, recommending that even fully vaccinated people—those who received their last vaccine dose at least two weeks prior—avoid non-essential trips. The agency loosened that policy today, saying fully vaccinated people can travel domestically without tests or post-travel quarantine periods, as long as they continue taking precautions like wearing masks and avoiding crowds if possible. Still, the CDC stopped short of _recommending_ travel, saying only that travel presents few risks to fully vaccinated individuals. “While we believe fully vaccinated people can travel at low risk to themselves, CDC is not recommending travel at this time due to \[the\] rising number of cases,” Director Rochelle Walensky said during a press briefing today. Cases are up [almost 10%](https://time.com/5800901/coronavirus-map/) over the last two weeks across the U.S., with hotspots in the Northeast and Midwest. The agency also said travelers do not need a negative test result before an international trip (unless it’s required by the destination), but should get tested before they return to the U.S. and a few days after their arrival. Just like anyone, international travelers should continue wearing masks in public, given the number of people who are not yet protected against the virus and the emergence of new viral variants around the world. Why the change? Recent studies have provided compelling real-world evidence that COVID-19 vaccines are not just effective at preventing disease, but also at stopping infections that could allow the virus to keep spreading. [One study](https://time.com/5950829/vaccines-covid-19-infection-real-world-study/) published this week found that two doses of either Moderna or Pfizer-BioNTech’s vaccines provided health care and other essential workers 90% protection against COVID-19 infections. Crucially, those results applied to both symptomatic and asymptomatic infections, which suggests the vaccines help prevent viral spread as well as disease. Research on post-vaccination transmission is ongoing, but recent studies have been promising enough for the CDC to relax its guidelines around [socializing](https://time.com/5945003/cdc-guidelines-vaccinated-people/) and, now, travel. It’s worth noting, however, that 90% protection against infection is still not a complete guarantee—hence why people should continue wearing masks even after vaccination. Furthermore, less than 20% of Americans [are fully vaccinated](https://time.com/5950829/vaccines-covid-19-infection-real-world-study/). But the rate of inoculations is increasingly quickly, meaning summer travel should be relatively safe for millions of Americans this year. ## Transcript But I am very excited that you finally come up with a vaccine. I feel the weight of it that this is going to do some good for us. And you know that I'm ready for it to start happening. You know, waiting to be in line to get my shot to. Just all the way to the Yankees or. Don't sign for Colbert. So they don't say. I actually. The biggest challenge has been temperature requirements, because that has to be kept at ultracold temperature of negative seven degrees Celsius. Or if we are transporting in a refrigeration, we have a lot more monitoring for that because it's only good for so many hours if the temperature excursion happens. And then there is a lot of responsibility in terms of liability. This vaccine has been very popular, so we have security protocols. We are putting SEALs when they're transporting. We have cameras installed specifically for this over and. Yeah. And be sorry. All right. Keep your arm relaxed. Oh, just the needle all done. You're not even bleeding. So my grandmother actually just passed away, I mean, less than two months ago from it. So to be out here protecting other people's grandparents is really touching me personally. Like, I really appreciate the opportunity and just so happy to be a part of it. The staff members here, we have about 240 that we're doing. We can get through usually with this many immunizations, 40 or 50 an hour at this facility specifically, we have over 100 residents that are all room to room based. So that takes a little more time. And then have you ever had a reaction after receiving a vaccine in the past? I can see how grateful they are. And I'm just grateful and honored to be able to give them the vaccine for me to be able to do it directly. You know, the last patient I just did, she's like, I'm waiting for the vaccine. And I was like, I'm here with the vaccine. And she's like, You're here with the vaccine. So I'm part of the bigger movement of vaccinating basically America. And that's it. Well, that's the easiest one I ever had. I'm glad with hay fever, I was you know, they can't come and visit me and I can't go visit them. But it's. Oh, gosh, it makes me mad anyway. It really is hard. And it's been harder for a lot of other people who have lost folks. And so I haven't had that problem, but it's awful. So I will mask myself any time to prevent that from happening. When I was a kid, everybody knew people who had somebody in their family that had polio. Any vaccine that prevents unnecessary pain and suffering is a good thing to have. All right. I'm just going to sanitize your arm real quick. I am happy that my son sometimes he talks to me on Facebook on face time. This time. And my daughter calls me every night. I know I can touch them and see them, but I just think the time will come. I hope. I hope I'm still alive. 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