WHO: In highly infected areas, vaccinated people must still wear masks

The World Health Organization (WHO) said today that people must still wear masks even if they have been vaccinated against coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) and are in areas where the virus is spreading.

Vaccines can save lives, but they are not enough,” the WHO told AFP in an email.

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) announced yesterday that it will update its guidelines to allow people who have received the full COVID-19 vaccine to be exempt from wearing masks outdoors and indoors.

Nearly 60 percent of adults in the U.S. have received one or two doses of the vaccine, and the number of confirmed cases in the country is declining rapidly, with the 7-day average number of new diagnoses down to 38,000, or about 11 per 100,000 people.

The WHO avoided commenting specifically on the U.S. situation, but several experts emphasized that the decision to lift vaccination restrictions, including the requirement to wear a mask, should not be based on vaccination rates alone.

Maria Van Kerkhove, a WHO epidemiologist, told the media, “It depends on the level of transmission of the virus,” she said.

It also depends on the number of vaccines and the prevalence of vaccination campaigns, also in relation to those mutated viruses that are spreading,” she said.

Vaccines used against COVID-19 have been shown to be highly protective against severe disease and to prevent death; there is also growing evidence that vaccines can highly prevent infection and transmission of the virus.

But WHO chief scientist Soumya Swaminathan emphasized that vaccines are “not 100 percent effective in preventing infection,” she said.

Even after vaccination, there may be mild discomfort, mild symptoms, or no symptoms,” she said.

She warned that vaccination alone does not guarantee that one will not be infected or that one will not transmit the infection to others. It may be rare, but it can still happen.

That’s why we have to take other protective measures, such as wearing masks, keeping distance, etc., until the majority of people in each country are protected and the spread and spread of the virus can be very low,” she said.

She also warned that few countries are in a good enough position to allow people to go unprotected and governments to lift restrictions.