While Centers for Disease Control and Prevention had earlier announced that for fully vaccinated individuals wearing masks is no longer necessary, the World Health Organization had something different to say.

On Friday, Dr Mariangela Simao, WHO assistant director-general, came out and said masks should stay on.

“The physical distancing, avoid crowding — this still continues to be extremely important, even if you are vaccinated,” she said, according to News4jax reports.

So who should you listen to? 

Well, the statements from CDC are particularly aimed at the situation in the United States but the WHO makes a blanket statement based on data, which includes countries across the globe.

CDC’s message reads: “Fully vaccinated people can resume activities without wearing a mask or physically distancing, except where required by federal, state, local, tribal, or territorial laws, rules, and regulations, including local business and workplace guidance.”

According to the CDC data, 46% of the United States is fully vaccinated and 54% of the country has had at least one shot.

While those numbers are not as high as medical experts hoped to see by now, they are still the highest percentage among the world’s largest countries by population.

So according to reports, medical experts agree that if you are vaccinated in the US, you can ditch the masks for now.

But with the surge in the cases of the Delta variant, things have started looking a little grim.

Although Pfizer and Moderna’s vaccines are about 90% effective at preventing illness and 94% effective against severe illness and hospitalization and Johnson & Johnson still collecting data on how its vaccine performs against the Delta variant, it is still advisable to mask up whenever you’re leaving your house.

But when it comes to other countries, it is definitely a must to follow the WHO recommendations and follow that country’s guidance on masks and other guidelines.