The way the novel coronavirus pandemic is developing suggests that the virus will never go away completely, WHO Representative to Russia Melita Vujnovic said on Sunday.
The virus will circulate as an endemic disease, a news agency quoted Vujnovic as saying on a channel.
“Coronavirus is on its way to becoming an endemic disease. This means it won’t go away. But we have to learn how to treat it and how to protect ourselves from it.
“Most importantly, we need to contain the outbreak of the infection now and reduce the number of those vulnerable to it. Otherwise, new variants will emerge in an unpredictable fashion,” she said.
Further, Vujnovic noted that evidence indicates that the Omicron variant is less severe than other strains. However, its dangers should not be underestimated, and it is too early for humanity to relax, she said.
“There is evidence now that Omicron seems to be less serious than (previous variants), but this does not mean that it should not be taken seriously. The coronavirus infection may lead to very serious consequences,” she said.
“Apart from vaccination, it is of utmost importance now to follow other safeguards as well: to wear a face mask and change it at recommended intervals, to ventilate rooms and avoid large groups of people in confined spaces. This is very important,” Vujnovic said.
A survey conducted by journal Nature also showed that many scientists expect the virus that causes Covid-19 to become endemic, but it could pose less danger over time.
More than one-third of the respondents to Nature’s survey thought that it would be possible to eliminate SARS-CoV-2 from some regions while it continued to circulate in others. In zero-COVID regions there would be a continual risk of disease outbreaks, but they could be quenched quickly by herd immunity if most people had been vaccinated.
“I guess Covid will be eliminated from some countries, but with a continuing (and maybe seasonal) risk of reintroduction from places where vaccine coverage and public-health measures have not been good enough,” said Christopher Dye, an epidemiologist at the University of Oxford, UK.