COVID-19 is far from becoming an endemic disease and can still trigger large epidemics around the globe, said the World Health Organisation (WHO) yesterday.

WHO emergencies director Michael Ryan said it is also wrong to think that if the coronavirus settles down and becomes endemic, that it will mean the end of the problem.

“I certainly do not believe that we have reached anything close to an endemic situation with this virus,” he told a live question-and-answer session on WHO social media channels.

He said it has not settled down into any seasonal or transmission pattern, and is “still quite volatile, still capable of causing huge epidemics”.

“That is not an endemic disease yet.”

He cited tuberculosis and malaria as endemic diseases that can still kill millions of people per year.

“Do not believe that endemic equals it’s over, it’s mild or not a problem. That is not the case at all.”

WHO Covid-19 technical lead Maria Van Kerkhove, who herself has caught the disease and is isolating in the United States, said the virus is circulating at a high level, causing “huge amounts of death and devastation”.

“We are still in the middle of the pandemic. We all wish that we are not (in the middle of a pandemic), but we are not in an endemic stage.”

Ryan said epidemic diseases often settle down into an endemic pattern, focusing on a particular section of the population.

They can often settle into becoming childhood diseases, such as measles and diphtheria, because “as new children are born, they are susceptible”.

But if vaccination levels drop, as has happened with measles, epidemics can break out again.

Last week saw the lowest number of coronavirus deaths recorded since the early days of the pandemic.

However, more than 20,000 fatalities were reported, which Ryan said are “still too many… we should be happy, but we should not be satisfied”. – AFP, April 15, 2022.