The highly infectious COVID-19 Delta variant virus (formerly known as the Indian variant virus) is spreading rapidly around the world. The World Health Organization (WHO) urges people who have been fully vaccinated to continue to observe anti-epidemic measures such as wearing masks and maintaining social distancing.

WHO Assistant Secretary-General Mariangela Simao said at the WHO headquarters in Geneva, Switzerland: “People cannot think that they are safe just because they have received two doses of the vaccine. They still have to protect themselves.”

Simao said: "Vaccines alone cannot prevent community transmission. People must continue to use masks, stay in ventilated places, pay attention to hand hygiene...Keep distance between people and avoid crowds. Even if you have been vaccinated, you still have to continue to use masks, stay in ventilated places, and pay attention to hand hygiene. In the case of community transmission, such measures are still extremely important."

As vaccination programs have helped to reduce the number of new cases and deaths, countries such as the United States have generally relaxed masks and other epidemic prevention restrictions.

However, WHO officials urge those who have been vaccinated to continue to "proceed with caution," because a large part of the world has not yet been vaccinated, and the more infectious virus is spreading in many countries, causing the epidemic to heat up, including the earliest discovered in India. Delta variant virus.

The Wall Street Journal reported yesterday that in this wave of Delta variant virus outbreak in Israel, about half of the infected adults have received two doses of Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine, prompting the Israeli government to resume indoor wearing masks, etc. Regulations.