The coronavirus “may never go away”, the World Health Organization (WHO) has warned.
Speaking at a briefing on Wednesday, WHO emergencies director Dr Mike Ryan warned against trying to predict when the virus would disappear.
He added that even if a vaccine is found, controlling the virus will require a “massive effort”.
Almost 300,000 people worldwide are reported to have died with coronavirus, and more than 4.3m cases recorded.
The world has a “long, long way to go” to bring the coronavirus pandemic under control, despite tentative steps in many countries to begin restarting normal life, the World Health Organization’s top emergencies expert warned on Wednesday.
Ryan said risks from COVID-19, the respiratory illness caused by the novel coronavirus, remained high at “national, regional and global levels.”
“What we all fear is a vicious cycle of public health and economic disasters if lockdowns are eased without the ability to detect fresh outbreaks,” Ryan, the head of the WHO’s emergencies program, told an online news briefing,
He added that “very significant control” of the virus was required in order to lower the current risk assessment.
The European Union pushed on Wednesday for a gradual reopening of borders within the bloc shut by the pandemic, saying it was not too late to salvage some of the summer tourist season while keeping people safe.
But public health experts say extreme caution is needed to avoid new outbreaks.
“We need to get into the mindset that it is going to take some time to come out of this pandemic,” Maria van Kerkhove, a WHO epidemiologist, told the same online briefing.
WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus stressed it was still possible to control the virus, with effort. Dr Tedros warned that there was no guaranteed way of easing restrictions without triggering a second wave of infections.
“Many countries would like to get out of the different measures,” the WHO boss said. “But our recommendation is still the alert at any country should be at the highest level possible.”
