WHO officials said they are urging fully vaccinated people to continue to “play it safe” because highly contagious variants, like Delta, are spreading in many countries.
The World Health Organization (WHO) has said people who are fully vaccinated will have to continue wearing masks, follow social distancing and other safety measures to contain the spread of the more deadly and contagious Delta variant of the coronavirus, which is spreading rapidly across the globe. “People cannot feel safe just because they had the two doses. They still need to protect themselves,” Dr. Mariangela Simao, WHO assistant director-general for access to medicines and health products, said during a news briefing from the agency’s Geneva headquarters.
“Vaccine alone won’t stop community transmission,” Simao added. “People need to continue to use masks consistently, be in ventilated spaces, hand hygiene … the physical distance, avoid crowding. This still continues to be extremely important, even if you’re vaccinated when you have a community transmission ongoing.”
The health organization’s comments come as some countries, including the United States, have largely done away with masks and pandemic-related restrictions as the Covid vaccines have helped drive down the number of new infections and deaths. The number of new infections in the U.S. has held steady over the last week at an average of 11,659 new cases per day, according to data compiled by Johns Hopkins University. Still, new infections have been plummeting over the last several months.
