THE coronavirus pandemic is transitioning into an endemic stage where the virus will be spreading at a slower rate, making it more predictable and manageable within countries, a top World Health Organisation official has said.
By Michael Gwarisa
The difference between an epidemic and a pandemic isn’t in the severity of the disease, but the degree to which it spreads.A pandemic cuts across international boundaries, as opposed to regional epidemics.
Speaking during a virtual press briefing, Dr Matshidiso Moeti, the Regional Director of the World Health Organization Regional Office for Africa said even though it is too early “to let our guard down”, there was now light at the end of the tunnel.
I believe that we are transitioning from the pandemic phase and we are now need to manage the presence of this virus in the long term with the measures that we have already been following. We think that we are moving now into what might be kind of endemic, where we live with the virus especially now that vaccination has improved. The virus will be here but we expect that with the levels of vaccination, and the continuing boosting and vaccine availability, we will minimise the level of the peaks,” said Dr Moeti.
She added that even though it was too early to predict the characteristics and lethality of the virus during the endemic phase, chances are high that it might not be as deadly as previously reported strains and the global economy may need to reopen.
“The lessons that we have learnt from both the flu and the COVID-19 pandemic so far are that they are both making us very alert of what needs to be done at different levels. What needs to be done at a community level, what needs to be done within countries and what needs to be done internationally and global level?
“It will be a matter very much of adjusting and developing new tools around several basic principles. One, we need a vaccine that will protect from transmission if not protect from severe illness which is the kind of tool that we have at the moment.
“We need to be able to use data to locally put in place those measures that prevent transmissions. As people, we need to get used to wearing of masks, reducing gatherings, reducing these events that gather people as these waves go up and they go down, restoring normal lives again so that we can have economic life, education as we look at the multi-faceted impacts of some of the measures that had to be put in place.
“We will need to live with this virus. We can predict to some extent, for example we know that vaccination is still low but is expected to improve in the next few months, winter is also coming in Southern African countries very soon. We should anticipate that and be able to see if these are the factors, what we can do.”
Speaking during the same virtual briefing, Dr Arlindo Nascimento Do Rosário, the Minster of Health Cape Verde said it was about time learn to live with the virus endemically.
“The countries will need to adapt to the new norm, the virus came to stay endemically but we need to resume our lives. Economical activities need to resume so we need to strengthen our immunity for citizens through vaccination programs. We need to also strength the international health regulation in order to align it with all the protection measures that are in place.
“I do believe that we need to find even as the WHO to resume the new stage of the endemic program. We need to have updated information and we need to be aware of the evolution of the pandemic in each country and we need to know what is the real impact of the pandemic on the health sector, on the social sector and on the economy. We need a holistic approach to the pandemic and be updated and transparent as possible,” said Do Rosário.
He added more needed to be done to deploy vaccines and ensure everyone who is eligible gets vaccinated so that new highly virulent waves do not emerge.
“We are all expecting that the vaccines cannot sit idle in courtiers. As soon as they reach the countries, they need to go into the arms of the people. The WHO is actually doing anything to support all the countries to make sure that they have capacity to deploy these vaccines as soon as possible.
