Fully vaccinated people in the US can gather without masks, according to new guidelines released on Monday by the Centres for Disease Control and Prevention.
Dr Rochelle Walensky, the head of the agency, revealed the new regulations during the White House Covid-19 Task Force briefing on Monday morning.
She said fully vaccinated people can safely visit each other in private settings without face masks or social distancing measures.
"You can visit your grandparents if you have been vaccinated and they have been too," Dr Walensky said.
Fully vaccinated people are defined as those who have had both doses of either the Pfizer-BioNTech or Moderna vaccine, or the single dose of the Johnson & Johnson vaccine.
People who have been inoculated should limit attending gatherings for two weeks after their last dose.
Dr Walensky outlined a second scenario that said fully vaccinated people can meet unvaccinated people who are not at high risk for severe Covid-19 symptoms.
People at high risk of severe disease are those who have diabetes, cancer, or who are immunocompromised.
“We believe these new recommendations are an important first step in our efforts to resume everyday activities in our communities,” she said in the briefing.
The guidance was highly anticipated as the vaccinated population is growing by the day. Approximately 17.7 per cent of people in the US have received one or more doses of a Covid-19 vaccine, according to the agency's vaccine tracker.
As of Monday morning, 9.2 per cent of people in the country, or about 30 million people, have been fully vaccinated.
The agency is still urging fully vaccinated people to wear face masks and practise social distancing in medium to large gatherings or in crowded spaces.
However, they do not have to quarantine or test for Covid-19 after they have been exposed if they are asymptomatic, though they should be tested if they experience Covid-19 symptoms.
There is a small chance a fully vaccinated person can still spread the virus to those who have not been immunised, the US health agency said.
Dr Walensky advised against travel as the US is still dealing with high levels of daily infections and there are fears of a smaller fourth surge in cases, especially with the introduction of new, possibly more transmissible variants.
The US has recorded 29 million coronavirus cases and more than 525,000 deaths from Covid-19, both the highest tallies globally.
The Food and Drug Administration has so far approved three vaccines for emergency use in the US: two-dose vaccines by Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna, and a one-dose vaccine by Johnson & Johnson. The Pfizer and Moderna shots are required to be taken a few weeks apart.
President Joe Biden says there will be enough vaccine supply for all adults in the country as early as the end of May or in early June.
A vaccine tracker by Bloomberg News says the US is inoculating about two million people each day.
There are ongoing conversations about how many people need to be vaccinated in order for the US to reach herd immunity, with scientists estimating about 80 per cent of the adult population will be needed to reach that level.
Dr Walensky stated she will continue to update guidelines as additional research comes out.
“We’re hopeful that our next set of guidance will have more science around what vaccinated people can do, perhaps travel being among them," she said.
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Iran has sent five planeloads of food to Qatar, which is suffering shortages amid a regional blockade.
A number of nations, including Iran's major rival Saudi Arabia, last week cut ties with Qatar, accusing it of funding terrorism, charges it denies.
The land border with Saudi Arabia, through which 40% of Qatar's food comes, has been closed.
Meanwhile, mediators Kuwait said that Qatar was ready to listen to the "qualms" of its neighbours.
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Huddersfield Town permanent signings:
- Steve Mounie (striker): signed from Montpellier for £11 million
- Tom Ince (winger): signed from Derby County for £7.7m
- Aaron Mooy (midfielder): signed from Manchester City for £7.7m
- Laurent Depoitre (striker): signed from Porto for £3.4m
- Scott Malone (defender): signed from Fulham for £3.3m
- Zanka (defender): signed from Copenhagen for £2.3m
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Sheikh Zayed's poem
When it is unveiled at Abu Dhabi Art, the Standing Tall exhibition will appear as an interplay of poetry and art. The 100 scarves are 100 fragments surrounding five, figurative, female sculptures, and both sculptures and scarves are hand-embroidered by a group of refugee women artisans, who used the Palestinian cross-stitch embroidery art of tatreez. Fragments of Sheikh Zayed’s poem Your Love is Ruling My Heart, written in Arabic as a love poem to his nation, are embroidered onto both the sculptures and the scarves. Here is the English translation.
Your love is ruling over my heart
Your love is ruling over my heart, even a mountain can’t bear all of it
Woe for my heart of such a love, if it befell it and made it its home
You came on me like a gleaming sun, you are the cure for my soul of its sickness
Be lenient on me, oh tender one, and have mercy on who because of you is in ruins
You are like the Ajeed Al-reem [leader of the gazelle herd] for my country, the source of all of its knowledge
You waddle even when you stand still, with feet white like the blooming of the dates of the palm
Oh, who wishes to deprive me of sleep, the night has ended and I still have not seen you
You are the cure for my sickness and my support, you dried my throat up let me go and damp it
Help me, oh children of mine, for in his love my life will pass me by.
Dubai works towards better air quality by 2021
Dubai is on a mission to record good air quality for 90 per cent of the year – up from 86 per cent annually today – by 2021.
The municipality plans to have seven mobile air-monitoring stations by 2020 to capture more accurate data in hourly and daily trends of pollution.
These will be on the Palm Jumeirah, Al Qusais, Muhaisnah, Rashidiyah, Al Wasl, Al Quoz and Dubai Investment Park.
“It will allow real-time responding for emergency cases,” said Khaldoon Al Daraji, first environment safety officer at the municipality.
“We’re in a good position except for the cases that are out of our hands, such as sandstorms.
“Sandstorms are our main concern because the UAE is just a receiver.
“The hotspots are Iran, Saudi Arabia and southern Iraq, but we’re working hard with the region to reduce the cycle of sandstorm generation.”
Mr Al Daraji said monitoring as it stood covered 47 per cent of Dubai.
There are 12 fixed stations in the emirate, but Dubai also receives information from monitors belonging to other entities.
“There are 25 stations in total,” Mr Al Daraji said.
“We added new technology and equipment used for the first time for the detection of heavy metals.
“A hundred parameters can be detected but we want to expand it to make sure that the data captured can allow a baseline study in some areas to ensure they are well positioned.”
