After a year of being in this pandemic,, the CDC now advises that fully vaccinated people do not have to wear a mask outdoors anymore and then later came out saying that vaccinated people did not have to wear mask indoors either. A moment many thought wouldn’t come for a much longer time.

The COVID-19 pandemic has been around for over a year coming into United States with its first case on January 21^st, 2020. When the case was first reported the CDC underwent an investigation which then led to the declaration of a state of emergency for the United States.

The CDC advised people to social distance which was keeping six feet apart from other people and to wear a mask always went around others. This is because the virus is found to be transmitted through the exposure to any respiratory fluids carrying the virus. When the virus began to spread at an alarming rate, masks were mandated to be worn when in public. Allison Mata said, “It was a change that was going to be difficult to get used to but it was necessary”. With it being such a new virus, there were no vaccines to try and help prevent individuals from catching the virus. This led to families in quarantine and changes to everyday life. The use of wearing mask in public places had become such a normal way of life and such a normal sight to see.

After a year of mask new guidelines for vaccinated people were released which stated, any activities that were stopped can be resumed, and doing activities without a mask can now be resumed while still following local regulations. “I don’t think I’ll start going out without a mask so quick, like many other people I’m going to wait a little to see how things go just in case,” Desiree Cano said. This does not mean the pandemic has officially gone away, but numbers have been dropping in many cities. Numbers have been at their lowest since start of the pandemic. El Paso has had the lowest number of active cases and cases per day and hospitalizations since last year. Over 50 percent of the community has been vaccinated. “It is very surprising because we have all been living with this for over a year now,” senior Samantha Titus said. “It’s a relieving moment, but also a worrying moment because we’re glad to finally be getting over this pandemic but also worry if it’s too early to be lifting these mask mandates.”

Many people are very interested on how this will work and how people will react to everything returning to normal. Just how it took some time to get used to wearing mask and social distancing it is now going to take some time return back to normal, 20210 but it is slowly returning to the life we know.