Americans who have completed their Covid vaccine can ignore quarantine rules – but only for three months, US government officials said. The Centers for Disease Control says that people who have been fully-vaccinated do not have to quarantine for 14 days if exposed to someone who tested positive for Covid.

CDC bosses said this rule applies as long as people who have been vaccinated remain asymptomatic. They added that the exemption only lasts three months from the date when the person completed their vaccination, and urged everyone to continue social distancing and wearing masks.

Reasons for the three month-limit to the exemption were not shared, although scientists have yet to discern how long vaccines offer protection for.

The CDC warned that anyone who chooses not to quarantine should if they begin to develop Covid symptoms. CDC officials say people in hospitals and care homes should also continue to quarantine even if vaccinated, because there is less data on how effective the Covid vaccine is for sick and elderly people.

A CDC spokesman said Thursday: ‘Individual and societal benefits of avoiding unnecessary quarantine may outweigh the potential but unknown risk of transmission (among vaccinated individuals).’

Growing evidence suggests that at least one vaccine – the AstraZeneca shot, which has yet to be approved for use in the US – may also prevent people who have been vaccinated from passing Covid onto others.

The two shots approved for use in the US, from Pfizer and AstraZeneca, both offer around 95% protection from serious Covid infections.

A third, one-injection vaccine from Johnson & Johnson is expected to be approved in the coming weeks.

Public health officials have touted vaccinations as a way out of the Covid crisis, which has infected close to 27.3million Americans, and killed close to 472,000.

The virus has also shattered economies worldwide, with vaccines also seen as key to allowing people to return to the office or school, and socialize in bars, restaurants as well as nightclubs again.

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