Corona is far away from ending, can still bring big epidemic; WHO warns

"I certainly don't believe we've gotten closer to an endemic state with this virus," Ryan told a live question-and-answer session on WHO's social media channels.

The World Health Organization (WHO) said on Thursday that COVID-19 is far from becoming an endemic disease and could still cause a major pandemic worldwide. WHO emergencies director Michael Ryan said that it would be wrong to even think that if Kovid-19 stops and becomes endemic, it means the end of the problem.

"I certainly don't believe we've gotten closer to an endemic state with this virus," Ryan told a live question-and-answer session on WHO's social media channels.

He said that corona has not happened so far that it spreads only in a particular season. The WHO said it has not changed in any seasonal pattern or transmission pattern and is "still quite unstable, and capable of causing major epidemics."

"It has not yet become an endemic disease," he said. He described tuberculosis (TB) and malaria as endemic diseases that are still killing millions of people every year. Ryan said, "Don't believe right now that the corona has become the equivalent of an endemic disease, or that the effect is mild or there is no problem. It is not like that at all."

What is an endemic disease?

Any disease is endemic when its presence and general prevalence in the world's population are maintained, but it remains very limited compared to epidemics.

An outbreak of a disease is endemic when it is continuously present but confined to a particular area. For example, malaria is considered an endemic disease in some countries and regions, apart from chickenpox, ie, smallpox, TB is also an endemic disease. Similarly, it is being said that at one point corona will also become an endemic disease and its outbreak will be very limited.