The WHO's Europe director says fully vaccinated people should still wear a mask, breaking with CDC guidance Hans Kluge said people should also "rethink or avoid" international travel, in a departure from the EU position. Marianne Guenot Business Insider

Fully vaccinated people should still wear a mask and socially distance in public, the World Health Organization's Europe director said Thursday.

Virus deaths are probably two to three times more than official records, the W.H.O. says.

GENEVA — Deaths from Covid-19 and Covid-related causes are likely to be two to three times the number that countries have recorded in their official data, the World Health Organization said on Friday.

Some six to eight million people may have now died from Covid-19 or its effects since the start of the pandemic, compared with 3.4 million deaths recorded in countries’ official reporting, Dr. Samira Asma, assistant director of the W.H.O.’s data division, told reporters.

The W.H.O. also estimates that at least three million people may have died from Covid-19 in 2020, compared with 1.8 million recorded in official data, the W.H.O. reported in annual statistics released on Friday.

Europe has recorded a 60 percent drop in new coronavirus infections over the past month, the World Health Organization said Thursday, encouraging news that comes as the continent plans to reopen its borders. Still, “this progress is fragile,” a top agency official cautioned.