HANCOCK COUNTY — Suddenly, what’s become an instinct for so many is now met with a pleasant reminder.
Vaccinated from COVID-19? If so, there’s a good chance you can leave it in your pocket, purse, or car.
But don’t get rid of them entirely just yet, according to the nation’s public health agency.
For over a year, health and government officials have urged people to wear face coverings to reduce the spread of the novel coronavirus. Now, vaccinations are spreading as cases, deaths and hospitalizations from the disease remain far below the levels seen during the surges last fall and winter.
While the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says those who are fully vaccinated can forgo their face coverings in many situations, some exceptions still remain.
This story attempts to explain some of the issues that are arising in the wake of the CDC’s guidance last week.
What does fully vaccinated mean?
The CDC considers people to be fully vaccinated two weeks after their second dose in a two-dose series, such as vaccines made by Pfizer and Moderna; or two weeks after a single-dose vaccine, like the one made by Johnson & Johnson.
What can fully vaccinated people do now?
According to the CDC, they can resume activities without wearing a mask or physically distancing, except where required by federal, state, local, tribal or territorial laws, rules and regulations, including local business and workplace guidance.
People are still required to wear masks on planes, buses, trains and other forms of public transportation traveling into, within or out of the U.S., and in U.S. transportation hubs such as airports and stations.
The CDC also encourages people who have weak immune systems, such as from organ transplants or cancer treatment, to talk with their doctors before shedding their masks. That’s because of continued uncertainty about whether the vaccines can rev up a weakened immune system as well as they do normal, healthy ones.
What is state and local guidance on face coverings?
Indiana’s stance on face coverings eased from a mandate to an advisory last month. An executive order from Gov. Eric Holcomb that lasts through May 31 spells out the current guidelines.
Face coverings should be worn over the nose and mouth when:
- Inside all state government buildings, offices and facilities, including but not limited to the Indiana Government Center, Indianapolis office locations and other offices or facilities throughout the state
- Outside of state property where six feet of social distancing cannot be achieved and maintained with individuals who are not in the same household
- At a COVID testing or vaccination site
- At a K-12 educational facility
Exemptions:
- Children under 2 years of age should not wear a face covering because of the risk of suffocation
- Children over 2 and under 8
- Anyone with a medical condition, mental health condition or disability which prevents wearing a face covering
- Any person who is deaf or hard of hearing, or communicating with a person who is deaf or hard of hearing, where the ability to see the mouth is essential for communication
- Any person for whom wearing a face covering would create a risk to the person related to their work, as determined by local, state or federal regulators or workplace safety guidelines
- Any person while consuming food or drink, or while seated at a restaurant or other establishment to eat or drink
- Any person while exercising or engaging in sports activity who can maintain six feet of social distancing from other individuals not in the same household
- Any person who is in a swimming pool, lake or similar body of water and who can maintain six feet of social distancing from another person not in the same household
- Any person while driving alone or with passengers who are part of the same household as the driver
- Any person obtaining a service that requires temporary removal of the face covering for security surveillance, screening or a need for specific access to the face, such as while visiting a bank or while obtaining a health-related or personal care service involving the face. However, the removal of the face covering must be temporary and limited only to the extent necessary to obtain the service
- Any person, upon request, as part of a law enforcement investigatory stop or investigation or court-related proceeding
- Any person who is incarcerated
- Any person who is experiencing homelessness
- Any person while giving a speech for a broadcast or to an audience if the person can maintain six feet of social distancing from another person not in the same household
- Any person attending or engaged in a religious service
Hancock County officials opted to follow Holcomb’s lead on his mask advisory. Not long after it, the city of Greenfield stopped requiring face coverings to be worn by employees or in its buildings.
Masks remain required at Hancock Regional Hospital properties.
How are major retailers in Hancock County responding?
Starting May 18, Walmart announced that fully vaccinated customers and employees no longer had to wear masks. The chain continues to request that non-vaccinated customers and employees wear them, however.
Kroger and Meijer have yet to change their policies, and still ask shoppers and workers to wear masks in stores.
What is the state’s guidance for schools?
Holcomb’s executive order also outlines guidance for wearing masks in K-12 educational facilities. All public and private schools must require students in grades three through 12, faculty, staff, vendors, contractors, volunteers and visitors to wear a face covering in any building, facility, grounds and school-sponsored modes of transportation.
Exemptions:
- Food consumption: Face coverings or shields are not required while eating or drinking
- Faculty/staff areas: Faculty and staff, while working — other than to prepare food or meals — along with other individuals who are in a room, office or place where all individuals not of the same household can maintain six feet of social distance from each other are not required to wear a face covering or shield
- Children between ages 2 and 8: Except when on school buses or on other facility/program-sponsored modes of transportation, children, whether or not students, who are between 2 and 8 are not required to wear face coverings or shields, but are strongly encouraged to
- Classroom settings:
- Where a classroom or place of instruction can be configured so that all students and instructors can maintain six feet of social distancing from one another at all times
- Where a classroom or place of instruction can be configured so that all students can maintain at least three feet of social distancing from one another at all times, and where students are positioned to face in the same direction; instructors must wear a face covering or shield unless the instructor can maintain six feet of social distancing from students
- At the direction of an instructor, a student may be permitted to remove his or her mask on an intermittent and temporary basis
- During recess, as long as social distancing can be maintained
For extracurricular and co-curricular activities, students, teachers, instructors, directors, coaches, trainers, volunteers and other personnel when not engaging in strenuous physical activity, as well as spectators, must wear face coverings or shields, per the executive order’s guidelines.
The Associated Press contributed to this story.
[sc:pullout-title pullout-title=”By the numbers” ][sc:pullout-text-begin]
COVID-19 data through early Tuesday, May 18
Hancock County
- 92 new tests administered (May 11-17)
- 5 new cases (May 17)
- 5.3% seven-day (May 5-11) positivity rate all tests, 9.2% cumulative rate
- 0 new deaths
- 106,156 total tests administered
- 43,347 total individuals tested
- 8,376 total cases
- 9.5% seven-day (May 5-11) positivity rate unique individuals, 19.3% cumulative rate
- 142 total deaths
- 34,654 fully vaccinated
- 37,253 first doses in two-dose series (56% of age 12+ population)
Indiana
- 13,837 new tests administered (April 30-May 17), 2,699 new individuals tested
- 495 new cases (May 12-17)
- 4.8% seven-day (May 5-11) positivity rate all tests, 8.7% cumulative rate
- 21 new deaths (Sept. 10, 2020-May 17, 2021)
- 10,208,588 total tests administered
- 3,457,544 total individuals tested
- 736,480 total cases
- 10.9% seven-day (May 5-11) positivity rate unique individuals, 21.3% cumulative rate
- 13,090 total deaths
- 417 total probable deaths
- 57.4% ICU beds in use – non-COVID
- 8.1% ICU beds in use – COVID
- 34.5% ICU beds available
- 18.3% ventilators in use – non-COVID
- 2.8% ventilators in use – COVID
- 78.9% ventilators available
- Hospital census: 814 total COVID-19 patients (591 confirmed, 223 under investigation)
- 2,477 total variant cases
- 89 cases of total multisystem inflammatory syndrome in children
- 2,326,908 fully vaccinated
- 2,527,727 first doses in two-dose series (43.3% of age 12+ population)
Source: Indiana State Department of Health
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