THE Covid pandemic may reach its “endgame” once Omicron subsides, a world health chief said yesterday.
Hans Kluge thinks there will soon be global immunity due to jabs and natural infection.
It comes after England became the first major country to announce an end to all Covid curbs. Dr Kluge, European director of the World Health Organisation, said: “It’s plausible that (Europe) is moving towards a kind of pandemic endgame.
“There will be, for quite some weeks and months, a global immunity, either thanks to the vaccine or because people have immunity due to the infection. So we anticipate there will be a period of quiet before Covid-19 may come back towards the end of the year, but not necessarily the pandemic coming back.”
He said Omicron may infect 60 per cent of Europeans by March — leading to widespread immunity. The variant is more contagious but causes less serious symptoms than past strains.
All Covid laws in England are due to be ditched on March 24 as the population learns to live with Covid as it does with flu.
But Dr Kluge warned: “There is a lot of talk about (it becoming) endemic but endemic means that it is possible to predict what’s going to happen.
“The virus has surprised us more than once so we have to be very careful.”
Yesterday, 74,799 new coronavirus cases were reported in the UK with a further 75 deaths.
