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The new coronavirus, causing Covid-19 disease, can become an endemic virus and therefore “never go away”, said the director of Health Emergencies at the World Health Organization (WHO), Mike Ryan.
When at least five months have passed since the pathogen began to circulate among humans – which is believed to have happened in China – and many wonder when international efforts to contain it will give convincing results, the senior official acknowledged that the coronavirus may remain, as so many other viruses, like measles or HIV.
“It can become another endemic virus in our communities and these viruses may never go away,” Ryan said at a virtual press conference.
He also said that it’s very difficult to project how long it will circulate the way it does now, especially since the studies that are being done in several countries reveal that the percentage of the infected population is relatively low.
This percentage includes people who did not know that they had contracted the coronavirus because they were asymptomatic or the symptoms they presented were very mild, but that they have produced antibodies because at some point they were infected.
Likewise, hope for a rapid vaccine is still uncertain and Ryan argued that for it to become a true alternative to eliminate the coronavirus It should be highly effective, available to everyone in need around the world, and ultimately used massively.
Media briefing on # COVID19 with @DrTedros https://t.co/euggX435FQ
– World Health Organization (WHO) (@WHO) May 13, 2020
REOPENING OF BORDERS IN EUROPE
The WHO Director of Emergencies commented on the reopening of borders that will start shortly in some central european countries, after lifting the social quarantine measures, and expressed the opinion that in a first phase land transit between countries will be easier and more controllable.
He explained that countries will need to assess whether the country with which they plan to open borders has a similar risk of coronavirus and whether their control measures are comparable. If so, neither country would take an extra risk.
“In itself, crossing a land border would not be too high a risk. If the risk and the measures are similar, exchanging travelers and tourists does not make a big difference,” he said.
Ryan predicted that travel and trade will likely resume first between countries in the same geographic area that will try to equalize their risks.
Air travel will be more complex and risk management will require more sophisticated means, including the decision on from which countries you can travel to another, as well as the procedures to be established at the departure and arrival airports, and during the trip.
The WHO currently works with the International Air Transport Association (IATA) in directives so that airlines can resume operations.
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