Covid endgame: WHO says world will get over health impacts of virus this year

After a gloom, there is good news. World Health Organization (WHO) Chief Scientist Soumya Swaminathan said the world will get over the health impacts of coronavirus this year.

“We will come through it, we will get out of it, but I think it will take longer than people are currently planning. They think that they will be out of the pandemic by the end of this year. Yes, we will get over the health impacts of coronavirus. We won’t get rid of the virus, but we will learn to live with it, like other respiratory viruses. But it is the other impact on economy and society that we have to think about,” she said in an interview

She said people have to stop thinking about going back to living like 2019. “Imagine a new future where we would be very cautious about new variants. Then we will have a much better surveillance system globally. Also, we will continue to put our masks on. Even if you have had ordinary flu, it is always good to keep your mask on,” she said. 

In his December 31 address,  WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said he was optimistic that the Covid-19 pandemic will end in 2022 only if inequity ends.

“I’m confident that this will be the year we end it – but only if we do it together. While no country is out of the woods from the pandemic, we have many new tools to prevent and treat Covid-19. The longer inequity continues, the higher the risks of this virus evolving in ways we can’t prevent or predict. If we end inequity, we end the pandemic,” he had said.