WHO urges caution over removing mask mandate for vaccinated people

GENEVA (Reuters) - The World Health Organization on Friday said local conditions needed to be taken into account if a country is planning to allow vaccinated people not to wear masks in public.

"In the instance of a country that wishes to take away a mask mandate ... that should only be done in the context of considering both the intensity of transmission in the area and the level of vaccine coverage," WHO's top emergency expert, Mike Ryan, told a virtual briefing in Geneva.

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) on Thursday advised that fully vaccinated people did not need to wear masks outdoors and could avoid wearing them indoors in most places.

(Reporting by Emma Farge in Geneva and Michael Shields and John Miller in Zurich; Writing by Nick Macfie; Editing by Kevin Liffey)