As some countries around the world begin to gradually ease lockdown restrictions imposed in a bid to stop the novel coronavirus from spreading, the World Health Organisation (WHO) has said that coronavirus may never go away.
Michael Ryan, the WHO’s Emergencies Director yesterday on Wednesday said that populations around the world will have to learn to live with coronavirus.
“We have a new virus entering the human population for the first time and therefore it is very hard to predict when we will prevail over it,” said Michael Ryan.
“This virus may become just another endemic virus in our communities and it may never go away.
“HIV has not gone away – but we have come to terms with the virus,” he added.
However, WHO has warned that there is no way to guarantee that easing the restrictions would not trigger a second wave of infections.
The virus first emerged in Wuhan, China late last year and has since infected more than 4.2 million people and killed nearly 300,000 worldwide.
“Many countries would like to get out of the different measures. But our recommendation is still the alert at any country should be at the highest level possible,” said WHO Chief Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus.