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After three years, COVID 'here to stay'

Agence France-Presse 

<div class="embed-wrap"><figure data-feedback="fb:likes,fb:comments"><img alt="People wearing personal protective equipment (PPE) cross a street with their luggage near an area on lockdown due to the recent Covid-19 coronavirus outbreaks in Beijing on May 10, 2022. Photo by Noel Celis, AFP/File " src="https://sa.kapamilya.com/absnews/abscbnnews/media/2022/news/05/10/20220510-covid19-beijing-lockdown-afp-1-s.jpg"/><figcaption>People wearing personal protective equipment (PPE) cross a street with their luggage near an area on lockdown due to the recent Covid-19 coronavirus outbreaks in Beijing on May 10, 2022. <em>Photo by Noel Celis, AFP/File </em></figcaption></figure></div><p>PARIS — While the World Health Organization hopes COVID-19 will soon no longer be considered a public health emergency, it has warned the virus itself is here to stay. </p><p>Three years after the first case was identified in China in December 2019, experts say the world must learn the lessons of this pandemic to prepare for potential future outbreaks.</p><div><strong>IS THE PANDEMIC NEARLY OVER? </strong></div><p>&quot;We have come a long way. We are hopeful that at some point next year, we will be able to say that COVID-19 is no longer a global health emergency,&quot; WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said on Wednesday.</p><p>&quot;This virus will not go away. It&#x27;s here to stay and all countries will need to learn to manage it alongside other respiratory illnesses,&quot; he added.</p><p>Around 90 percent of the global population now have some level of immunity against COVID, either through vaccination or previous infection, the WHO estimates.</p><p>The weekly death toll is around a fifth of what it was a year ago and the remaining deaths are largely among those who are not fully vaccinated, it says.</p><p>The WHO&#x27;s emergency committee on COVID will meet in January to discuss the criteria for whether it still constitutes a public health emergency of international concern.</p><div><strong>CAN COVID BE ERADICATED?</strong></div><p>Some experts anticipate that Covid will eventually move from a pandemic to an endemic stage, in which it would continue to circulate widely and spark regular resurgences, as is currently the case with seasonal flu.</p><p>But there are a number of reasons why the total eradication of COVID looks unlikely.</p><p>Smallpox meanwhile remains the only human infectious disease to be officially eradicated, which was declared by the WHO in 1980. </p><p>&quot;To eradicate a virus, the disease must be clinically visible, there must be no animal reservoir, and there must be a highly effective vaccine that offers life-long protection,&quot; French microbiologist Philippe Sansonetti told a conference at France&#x27;s Pasteur Institute last week.</p><p>&quot;COVID-19 ticks all the wrong the boxes,&quot; he added.</p><p>For COVID, isolation measures are undermined by the fact that some infected people exhibit no symptoms, meaning they are not aware they should isolate. </p><p>Unlike smallpox, COVID can be transmitted to animals, where it can circulate before later reinfecting humans, creating a virus reservoir that is difficult to snuff out.</p><p>And while COVID vaccines help prevent against severe forms of the disease, they offer little protection against reinfection -- and their effectiveness wanes with time, meaning booster doses are required. </p><ul class="op-related-articles">	<li><a href="https://news.abs-cbn.com/news/12/06/22/ph-loses-p22-billion-from-wasted-covid-19-vaccines">Philippines may have lost P22 billion from wasted COVID-19 vaccines</a></li>	<li><a href="https://news.abs-cbn.com/news/11/11/22/doh-no-more-restrictions-this-christmas-get-vaxxed">DOH: No more restrictions this Christmas, get vaccinated</a></li></ul><div> </div><div><strong>BIGGEST RISKS AHEAD?</strong></div><p>Etienne Simon-Loriere, head of the Pasteur Institute&#x27;s evolutionary genomics of RNA viruses unit, said that &quot;currently the virus is being allowed to circulate far too much&quot;.</p><p>Every new infection raises the chance the virus could mutate to become more transmissible or severe, he warned.</p><p>&quot;Even if we would all like to believe it, we have no reason to think that it will become more friendly,&quot; Simon-Loriere said.</p><p>And there is a looming threat that new infectious diseases could jump from animals over into humans.</p><p>Since the emergence of SARS, MERS and Covid, &quot;a good dozen coronaviruses have been found in bats that could potentially infect humans,&quot; warned Arnaud Fontanet, a specialist in emerging diseases at the Pasteur Institute.</p><p>More than 60 percent of emerging diseases are zoonotic, meaning they can be transmitted between humans and animals.</p><p>The risk from zoonotic diseases has increased due to human-induced upheavals to the animal world including deforestation, climate change and mass livestock farming.</p><ul class="op-related-articles">	<li><a href="https://news.abs-cbn.com/spotlight/07/28/22/pair-of-new-studies-point-to-natural-covid-19-origin">Pair of new studies point to natural COVID-19 origin</a></li>	<li><a href="https://news.abs-cbn.com/spotlight/04/08/20/human-activity-to-blame-for-coronavirus-spread-study">Human activity to blame for coronavirus spread: study</a></li></ul><div><strong> PREPARATION FOR NEXT PANDEMIC? </strong></div><p>Fontanet said that in the case of a possible future pandemic, &quot;a lot can and must be done at the beginning of the outbreak&quot;.</p><p>He gave the example of Denmark, which imposed a lockdown early during the first wave of the COVID pandemic, allowing it to later lift the measure more quickly.</p><p>Another key factor is the ability to quickly test for emerging diseases, allowing those infected to isolate as soon as possible.</p><p>&quot;Unfortunately, today we are still reacting, not anticipating,&quot; Fontanet said. </p><p>The 194 WHO member states have agreed to start thrashing out an early draft of a pandemic treaty in February aiming to ensure the flawed response that turned COVID into a global crisis does not happen again.</p><div><strong>© Agence France-Presse </strong></div><figure class="op-interactive"><iframe allow="autoplay; fullscreen" frameBorder="0" height="100%" id="ivsplayer01" scrolling="no" src="https://player.ivideosmart.com/ivsplayer/v4/dist/html/iframe-src.html?iframeid=ivsplayer01&amp;key=e8c22c015ca9eafa76f1e3edfa03c603&amp;spid=3001339&amp;vid=2240310" width="100%"></iframe></figure><div class="iwantbar">Watch more News on <a href="https://www.iwanttfc.com/#!/browse/Genres/News/tag_id_genres/id_news" target="_blank">iWantTFC</a></div>

While the World Health Organization hopes Covid-19 will soon no longer be considered a public health emergency, it has warned the virus itself is here to stay. 