The coronavirus that causes Covid-19 could become endemic like HIV, the World Health Organisation has said.
The WHO also warned against any attempt to predict how long it would keep circulating and called for a “massive effort” to counter it.
“It is important to put this on the table: this virus may become just another endemic virus in our communities, and this virus may never go away,” Mike Ryan, emergencies expert of the organisation, told an online briefing.
“I think it is important we are realistic and I don’t think anyone can predict when this disease will disappear,” he said on Wednesday.
“I think there are no promises in this and there are no dates. This disease may settle into a long problem, or it may not be.”
However, he said the world had some control over how it coped with the disease, although this would take a “massive effort” even if a vaccine was found – a prospect he described as a “massive moonshot”.
More than 100 potential vaccines are being developed, including several in clinical trials, but experts have underscored the difficulties of finding vaccines that are effective against coronaviruses.
Mr Ryan said the vaccines exist for other illnesses, such as measles, that have not been eliminated.
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A medical worker assists another to dress up in protective gear at a tent in a newly opened field hospital in Makkah in Saudi Arabia. AFP -
View of the field hospital set up in Cite Sportive d'El Menzah in Tunis, Tunisia. EPA -
A man wears a protective face mask while jogging in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. Reuters -
A view shows traffic on the Zalka to Jal Al Dib motorway an hour before the start of a four-day nationwide lockdown, north of the Beirut. AFP -
Barber Ali Sfar, wearing a face mask, dresses a boy's hair in Tunis. AP Photo -
A man wearing a protective face mask waits outside a branch of Etisalat Egypt Telecommunications Company in the Cairo suburb of Maadi, Egypt. Reuters -
A stop sign is displayed at a checkpoint where Jordanian police stand guard during curfew in Amman, Jordan. Reuters -
Neighbours of the Jordanian caricaturist Osama Hajjaj, team up in creating works of art on their roof in Amman. Reuters -
Children enjoy a sunny day with their parents, after being allowed to go out for four hours for the first time since April 4 in Istanbul, Turkey. Reuters -
Children enjoy a sunny day with their parents, after being allowed to go out for four hours for the first time since April 4 in Istanbul, Turkey. Reuters -
A woman wears a face mask in Istanbul, Turkey. EPA -
Cars drive past the blank billboards on the 6th of October Bridge in Cairo, Egypt. Reuters -
Workers wearing protective face masks stand on a building under construction in the New Administrative Capital. east of Cairo. -
Congolese Eouani Mambia Morelline, 40-year-old head of a collective for migrant women in Morocco, visits her neighbours while wearing a protective mask in the Moroccan capital Rabat. AFP -
A Yemeni motorcyclist wears a protective face mask at a market in Sanaa, Yemen. EPA
The pandemic also makes it "unlikely" that world leaders and thousands of other participants will be able to gather in New York in September for the annual UN General Assembly, Secretary General Antonio Guterres said in an interview with the French weekly magazine Paris-Match on Thursday.
The UN chief said he was looking at "various alternatives" made possible by digital technology, which he will present to member states.
Several UN envoys have already predicted that the meeting may be held by videoconference, especially as this year marks the 75th anniversary of the world body.
In a video messages, Mr Guterres on Wednesday urged governments, civil society and health authorities to address mental health needs arising from the pandemic, the lockdowns in place to help slow the spread and the deaths of loved ones, warning that psychological suffering is increasing.
Governments around the world are struggling to reopen their economies while still containing the virus, which has infected almost 4.3 million people, according to a Reuters tally, and led to more than 291,000 deaths.
Public health experts say extreme caution is needed to avoid new outbreaks.
