Health authorities said they will take into account overseas vaccine administration when deciding to allow vaccinated people to gather without masks or distancing.

Senior health official Yoon Tae-ho made the announcement on Tuesday in a regular briefing, alluding to a recent report by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention(CDC) on this topic.

The CDC said on Monday that fully vaccinated people can gather in small groups with other vaccinated people or those at low-risk for COVID-19 without masks and social distancing.  

The CDC defined "fully vaccinated" as people who have received all of their COVID-19 vaccine doses and waited two weeks to build their full immune response.  

Yoon said that South Korea cannot blindly follow the U.S.’ example, citing different quarantine strategies, though new social distancing guidelines will be forthcoming when the rate of vaccinations goes up.