People who are fully vaccinated and meet each other do not need to wear masks, the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC) has said.

This comes a few hours after the U.S. Centre for Disease Control and Prevention also suggested that mask-wearing should be relaxed for fully-vaccinated individuals.

“When fully vaccinated individuals meet other fully vaccinated individuals (very low/low risk), physical distancing and the wearing of face masks can be relaxed,” a document published by the ECDC read.

The ECDC also suggested that unvaccinated individuals from the same household or social bubble who meet fully vaccinated individuals can also relax on mask-wearing if there are “no risk factors for severe disease or lower vaccine effectiveness in anyone present”.

Regarding quarantine for travellers, the ECDC said that this “can be waived or modified for fully vaccinated individuals as long as there is no or very low level circulation of immune escape variants.”

The ECDC noted that the vaccine has had a positive impact on people who have taken the jab, with the risk of developing severe Covid-19 for young adults and middle-aged adults being very low.

This information comes to hand after analysing the situations in the leading countries for vaccinations such as the UK and Israel, the document read, which “provide an indication of how population-level transmission can be reduced with the careful application and slow release of public health prevention measures while vaccination rollout is scaled up as quickly as possible throughout the EU/EEA.”

It is unclear whether the Maltese Health Authorities will be adapting to this new piece of information from ECDC and recommend such relaxations.

Over 100,000 people have been vaccinated with both doses so far.