Is the COVID-19 pandemic over? Here’s what scientists say about coronavirus

The coronavirus pandemic has begun to flag in several parts of the world, including India, after upending every facet of life on the globe. The cases, however, will continue to emerge but the pandemic is unlikely to show any growth, scientists said.

Gautam Menon, a professor at Ashoka University, however, said a small fraction of the cases reported might also cause deaths. He said that the world can’t live under the shadow of the virus and permanent alertness.

On Thursday, WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus Tedros said that after a two-and-a-half years-long struggle, the world is coming out of the pandemic. 

“But it is still a long way off, and the tunnel is still dark, with many obstacles that could trip us up if we don’t take care,” he added.

Last week, he said the world was in a good position to end the pandemic but “we are not there yet”.  

Epidemiologist Ramanan Laxminarayan said the coronavirus poses a lesser risk than before due to vaccination. 

“Due to vaccination and widespread population exposure, the risk of hospitalization and death has come down,” he added. 

Cell biologist Sanjeev Galande said the pandemic has also almost gotten over but that can’t be said about the coronavirus. He said the pandemic is likely to turn into the seasonal flu. 

The predominance of the dangerous delta variant has dropped from 15 percent to 3 percent, which is good news, he added. 

Menon said we might well hope that we are emerging from the shadow of the COVID-19 pandemic, provided a more transmissible as well as more virulent variant strain does not appear.

In Laxminarayan’s view, the message for policymakers should be to continue to focus on Covid vaccination while that for the general public must be to not worry as long as they are vaccinated.

On September 22, the number of daily reported global deaths stood at 1,395, the lowest since March 2020, while the number of new cases was 4,28,321 (4.2 lakh), the lowest since October 2020, according to the WHO Coronavirus dashboard.

This article was first reported by DNA Web Team