A group of experts has predicted that the coronavirus pandemic is likely to last as long as two years and won’t be controlled until about two-thirds of the world’s population is immune.
It may be harder to contain the virus because of its ability to spread from people who don’t appear to be ill or show any symptoms, the report by the Center for Infectious Disease Research and Policy at the University of Minnesota states, Bloomberg Africa reports.
The report further states that people may actually be at their most infectious before symptoms appear.
According to the experts, the coronavirus pandemic is likely to continue in waves that could last beyond 2022.
“Risk communication messaging from government officials should incorporate the concept that this pandemic will not be over soon,” they said.
They also stated that “people need to be prepared for possible periodic resurgences of disease over the next two years.”
We gathers that the report was written by CIDRAP director Michael Osterholm and medical director Kristen Moore, Tulane University public health historian John Barry, and Marc Lipsitch, an epidemiologist at the Harvard School of Public Health.
Nevertheless, there could be light at the end of the tunnel after researchers said an experimental drug showed promise of treating COVID-19.
According to data from a new study cited by the United States government, the drug, remdesivir, was found to shorten the recovery time for COVID-19 patients.
The study revealed remdesivir interfered with the replication of some viruses, including the SARS-CoV-2 virus responsible for the current pandemic.
“The data shows that remdesivir has a clear-cut significant positive effect in diminishing the time to recovery,” Dr Anthony Fauci, the US’ top infectious-disease expert said during a White House press conference on Wednesday, April 29.
Fauci said a clinical trial of more than a thousand people showed people taking remdesivir recovered in 11 days on average, compared to 15 days for those on a placebo.
“Although a 31% improvement doesn’t seem like a knockout 100%, it is a very important proof of concept. What it has proven is that a drug can block this virus,” he said.
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