New guidance is out from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention today with regards to mask use in certain outdoor settings. According to the New York Times, the new guidance allows fully vaccinated individuals to forgo a mask when walking, hiking, biking, running alone or gathering in small groups outside.
The New York Times hailed the decision as a “major step to ease pandemic restrictions”. That said, we don’t expect this new guidance to have any impact on the Walt Disney World theme parks anytime soon. The CDC still says that people should wear masks in public settings indoors and outdoors where there is a substantial risk of COVID-19 transmission.
Vaccinated people should still wear masks in public settings indoors and outdoors where there is a substantial risk of Covid-19 transmission, such as concerts, sporting events and other crowded gatherings.
Even with limited attendance at the Walt Disney World theme parks right now, each theme park draws more than 10,000 guests per day and sometimes tens of thousands of guests when they are at capacity. This would certainly qualify them as areas of substantial risk when compared to the “small groups” of people that the CDC gives as an example.
Of course, there is no change for unvaccinated individuals at this time – of which there will be many visiting Walt Disney World over the many months to come. The CDC hopes that this new guidance will encourage more Americans to get vaccinated now that vaccines are widely available to Americans of all ages.
At Walt Disney World, there have been small steps to return to normal, but we don’t expect that this latest guidance will have any noticeable impact on theme park operations at this time.
As always, keep checking back with us here at BlogMickey.com as we continue to bring you the latest news, photos, and info from around the Disney Parks!