A new report is predicting that the coronavirus pandemic may last as long as two years and that it could take up to two-thirds of the global population being immune to effectively control the spread of the virus.
The report released Thursday from the Center for Infectious Disease Research and Policy (CIDRAP) at the University of Minnesota said that due to coronavirus’s ability to spread among people who appear to be asymptomatic, it may be harder to control than flu outbreaks or other pandemics.
Infected people may also be at their most infectious prior to symptoms appearing, Bloomberg News reported.
“The virus caught the global community off guard, and its future course is still highly unpredictable; there is no crystal ball to tell us what the future holds and what the ‘end game’ for controlling this pandemic will be,” the report says.
The report predicts three possible scenarios for the ongoing pandemic.
In the first scenario, small peaks of coronavirus outbreaks continue over a “1- to 2-year period” that diminish in 2021, although the waves may be different in separate areas. In the second scenario, a larger wave of coronavirus in the fall or winder of 2020 follows the first wave of the virus, resulting in more waves in 2021. In the final category, the first wave of the virus in 2020 is followed by a “slow burn” of ongoing cases “without a clear wave pattern.”
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Article URL : https://thehill.com/policy/healthcare/495623-infectious-disease-research-warns-coronavirus-pandemic-could-last-two-years