Looking into the future, even after COVID-19 cases fall from their current record-breaking levels, it is highly unlikely the world will completely eliminate the coronavirus that causes infections. 

A day when it will no longer be a pandemic is inevitable – meaning cases are no longer out of control and hospitals are not at great risk of overwhelming. Many experts are predicting coronavirus becoming more like seasonal influenza. 

Some experts are event saying that COVID may become part of the background in this new year. CNN was informed by Dr. Ofer Levy that he thinks that we’ll likely see this wave come and go and that spring and summer will look a lot better than right now.’ 

It will become an endemic cycle as the seasons turn, but until then, the coronavirus is still shifting unpredictably. There is no official benchmark for when the pandemic has ended and ‘normality’ has returned.

To transition from pandemic to endemic, the entire world has to build up to immunity to the coronavirus. This means, of course, more vaccination and the delay due to some refusing the jab, the transition could take even longer. 

This also means getting vaccines to third-world countries which are currently suffering from vaccine shortages and low immunisation. Collaborations between health departments, laboratories, hospitals and health care providers have suggested that tracking COVID might become similar to that of influenza. 

Flu pandemics have been observed throughout the ages, given it is also an unpredictable virus. So the COVID situation could have a similar spin – a very bendable sense of ‘normality.’ 

#MaltaDaily

Photo Source: Council of Europe