“The coronavirus could become an endemic virus and never go away”: WHO

The SARS-CoV-2 virus could remain, like so many other viruses, such as measles or HIV, the director of Health Emergencies of the World Health Organization said yesterday. Without certainty against a vaccine, they assure that land traffic will be more viable than air.

The new coronavirus, which causes the COVID-19 disease, can become an endemic virus and, therefore, “never leave,” said the director of Health Emergencies yesterday 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. (Read: Calving with Face Masks: Pregnant Women Amid the Coronavirus)

“Can become someone else endemic virus in our communities and these viruses may never go away, “Ryan said at a virtual press conference. He also said that it is very difficult to project how long it will circulate the way it does now, especially since the studies 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. Also the hope of a rapid vaccine It is still uncertain, and Ryan argued that for it to become a true alternative to coronavirus removal it should be highly effective, available to all who need it worldwide, and ultimately used massively.

Reopening of borders in Europe

The WHO Director of Emergencies commented on the reopening of borders that will soon start in some Central European countries, after lifting the social quarantine measures, and thought that in a first phase land transit between countries will be easier and more controllable. He explained that countries will have to assess whether the country with which they plan to open borders has a similar risk of coronavirus and whether their control measures they 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 deciding from which countries you can travel to another, as well as the procedures to be established at departure and arrival airports, and during the trip. WHO currently works with the International Air Transport Association (IATA) in directives for airlines to resume operations