It seems that more of us have at least some immunity from the COVID-19 virus, through prior infection or vaccination. So the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has dropped the quarantine recommendation for people who come into close contact with an infected person.

The announcement on Thursday also ended the CDC push for 6 feet of separation. Neither of these iconic guidelines have been followed faithfully lately, but ending them still signals, if not the pandemic’s end, the start of a new phase.