The World Health Organization (WHO) has released an updated plan for Covid-19, describing three possible scenarios for how the pandemic may develop by the end of the year. The WHO director believes the most likely one is that the severity of the disease will decrease over time.
“Based on what we now know, the most likely scenario is that the virus that causes Covid-19 will continue to develop, but the severity of the disease it causes will decrease over time due to increased immunity from vaccination and illness”, said WHO Director Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, Reuters reports.
The updated Strategic Preparedness, Readiness and Response Plan outlines the strategic adjustments that each country should make to prevent the spread of coronavirus, reduce the impact of Covid and end the global state of emergency.
However, the head of the WHO warned that occasional rises in the number of cases and deaths could occur when immunity falls, which could require periodic boosters for vulnerable populations.
Speaking about the second and third scenarios, Tedros said that either less serious variants will appear, so boosters and a new vaccine will not be needed, or a more virulent variant will appear, so protection from earlier vaccination or infection will be insufficient.
This is the third WHO Strategic Preparedness, Readiness and Response Plan, and Tedros believes it will be the last.
The first plan was announced in February 2020, at the very beginning of the pandemic.
Photo: who.int/images
