WHO tells fully vaccinated to wear masks, physically distance

The World Health Organization is urging the public to practice Covid mitigation tactics – including masking and distancing – regardless of vaccination status as cases surge across Europe heading into the holiday season.

Some countries and communities have been lured into a “false sense of security” that the pandemic’s over and the vaccinated are fully protected against Covid, WHO Director-General Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus told reporters during an update Wednesday in Geneva.

He noted that Covid vaccines “save lives” and lower the risk of severe disease and death, but the vaccinated can still contract and spread the virus as social mixing returns to pre-pandemic levels.

“Even if you’re vaccinated, continue to take precautions to prevent becoming infected yourself, and to infecting someone else who could die,” Tedros said. “That means wearing a mask, maintaining distance, avoiding crowds and meeting others outside if you can, or in a well-ventilated space inside.”

Tedros called Europe “the epicenter of the pandemic,” with “unsustainable pressure” facing both health-care systems and personnel. Europe represented 67% of the world’s total new Covid cases during the week ended Nov. 21 with more than 2.4 million infections, an 11% increase from the previous seven days, according to the WHO’s most recent weekly epidemiological update.

The WHO’s office covering Europe and Central Asia said Tuesday that those regions have surpassed a combined 1.5 million Covid deaths and could suffer 700,000 more fatalities by March 2022. The organization expects that intensive care units in 49 of the region’s 53 countries could experience high or extreme stress over the next four months.

Governments rolling back public health measures are fueling Europe’s current outbreak, said Dr. Mike Ryan, executive director of the WHO’s Health Emergencies Program.

“In Europe, even in the midst of a very, very strong resurgence in cases, and even in the midst of some of those countries under huge pressure in their health systems, we’re seeing pre-pandemic levels of social mixing, gathering and many other things,” Ryan said. “And the reality is the virus will continue to transmit intensely in that environment.”

Though the majority of reported Covid cases worldwide are in Europe, Tedros added that “no country or region is out of the woods” just yet. But expanding vaccination coverage, wearing masks, using distancing, and improving ventilation indoors can help drive down Covid transmission without resorting to lockdowns heading into the holiday season, said Maria Van Kerkhove, the WHO’s technical lead on Covid.

Covid infections are also rising in the U.S., with more than 95,000 new cases reported…