When will COVID-19 end? The situation now as the coronavirus rages on

The coronavirus pandemic is not even close at hand. More than 20.2 million people worldwide were reported to be infected, and more than 740,000 died from COVID-19. Some countries are experiencing a second wave of infections, while others, such as the US, have only seen the outbreak worsened without rest.

Whether or not reopen schools, restaurants and bars are now political flashpoints, as it is becoming increasingly clear that cases of coronavirus have spread as people are nearby. In one school district in Georgia, more than 1,000 students and staff are now in quarantine as a result of positive test results spanning every age group.

IN coronavirus vaccines is in development, with more than 165 vaccine projects in the works around the world. Russia approves a vaccine against coronavirus at a rate that concerns medical experts, and China has a vaccine that it tests on members of the military.

Bill Gates has predicted that “the rich world” will receive a fax at the end of 2021. And lockdown will not completely go away until coronavirus does, according to a study published in The Lancet in August.

Read on for the latest news, what experts are saying about a second wave, and why the medical community is worried about the coronavirus pandemic that is raging in the fall. This story is often updated and is intended to provide background information only, not medical advice.

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Global coronavirus pandemic: The latest news

• Total historical US coronavirus cases surpassed 5.1 million in the second week of August, including nearly 2.5 million active cases and over 165,000 deaths.
• Statewide lockdown measures vary tremendously across the US, with about half of states pausing or reversing reopening and half reopening or reopened. 

Quit looking for waves

Call them surges. Call them spikes. But, as Dr. Michael T. Osterholm, the director of the Center for Infectious Disease Research and Policy at the University of Minnesota claims, “They’re not waves.” Then what’s going on? “This is like a forest fire, full steam ahead,” he said. “And wherever there’s human wood to burn, it’ll do it. What we see, though, are these spikes in cases where [lockdowns] deceived, or they do not keep them. “

“We are still in the first wave,” Vanderbilt epidemiologist Loren Lipworth told the Washington Post. “While we reduce the restrictions, there will always be recurrences in cases. It’s not that it’s a new wave of the virus.”

Why do coronavirus cases go up and down so much?

At one point, about 90% of everyone in the U.S. was under one lock or another and the curve began to flatten. But that all began to change in the second half of April, when a few states began to resolve lockdown restrictions. By June, most of the country had reopened almost completely. Not long after that, new cases started again.

Epidemiologists have identified a strong correlation between lockdown and case levels. Basically, wherever you look, things drop as lockdown security issues are issued – and shoot straight back when restrictions start to lift. The only thing that seems to limit the trend is how well the population of an area adheres to disease prevention measures such as wear face masks en limited social gatherings.

In July, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention director Robert Redfield said, “I think if we could get everyone [in the US] to wear a mask right now, I think in four, six, eight weeks we could bring this epidemic under control. ”

Why are experts worried about coronavirus in the fall?

Most public health experts – including Redfield and Drs. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases – said they expect a major uptick to happen this fall and winter. The White House has admitted that it is prepared for the possibility. However, part of that prediction was based on the assumption that the virus would slow down in the summer, which does not seem to be happening.

Much of the attention focused on the fall has now shifted to concerns about the possibility of two potentially deadly viruses circulating simultaneously – COVID-19 and the seasonal flu, the latter of which kills about 40,000 people in the US each year . For sure overlapping symptoms such as fever and a cough, it can be more difficult for individuals and doctors to immediately determine what infection you have.

“The real risk is that we will have two circulating respiratory pathogens at the same time,” warned Dr. Redfield when he spoke to Time Magazine about the upcoming flu season. Even as serious COVID-19 infections continue to push hospitals to the brink of their capacity and capabilities, it can also be harder to care for potentially virulent flu patients.

The CDC is urging drugmakers to produce millions more doses of flu vaccine this year than usual pending greater demand. Typically, less than half of all American adults take the flu vaccine each year, but that rate increases to about two out of three for adults over 65, a population that the CDC has identified as having a higher risk for more serious COVID-19 infections.

Are we going to another lockdown?

Health experts, including American infectious disease experts Dr Fauci and Dr Ali Khan, the former director of the CDC’s Office of Public Health, have said it is possible to prevent a complete lockdown, but there are conditions.

States should effectively test for coronavirus and follow that testing up with traces of contacts. And people need to change their behavior to make social distance and mask a part of daily life. Only then would it be possible to flatten the curve without going back to a full blown lockdown. Otherwise, as new cases continue to skyrocket, “is your only option to quit,” Khan said.

More than likely we will see different levels of lockdown in different areas and go, depending on where the virus heats up and dies, until we have a coronavirus vaccines. Even then, we can still not be exactly in the clear.

“We will forever be dealing with this virus. Effective and safe vaccines and hopefully with a little sustainability will be very important, even critical tools, in combating it,” Osterholm said. “But the whole world will experience COVID-19 ‘until the end of time.”

For more on the coronavirus, here’s what happens to it development of coronavirus vaccine, what to do if you or someone you live with chalk COVID-19 en how to safely go on holiday during coronavirus of summer.