Covid-19 may never go away says WHO

Special desk

While the world is making all attempts to contain the coronavirus spread and countries are taking all steps the World Health Organisation (WHO) has warned coronavirus may be here to stay and with a threat of global mental health crisis.

While business community makes effort to step out and start industries moving WHO cautioned and called for a massive effort to overcome it. “It is important to put this on the table: this virus may become just another endemic virus in our communities, and this virus may never go away,” said Michael Ryan, WHO’s emergencies chief in his message.

He said, “I think there are no promises and there are no dates for it. This disease may settle into a long problem, or it may not be”.

IN another significant report by the WHO’s mental health department warned of another looming crisis. “The isolation, the fear, the uncertainty, the economic turmoil – they all cause or could cause psychological distress,” said department’s director, Devora Kestel. She said the world could expect to see an upsurge in the severity of mental illness, including amongst children, young people and even healthcare workers.

The statements came as Russia became the nation with the second highest number of infections at 242,271, behind the US. The official death toll in Russia is 2,212. Moscow, the centre of the country’s outbreak, accounted for 1,232 of those deaths. Tatyana Golikova, Russia’s health minister, denied any falsification of the statistics.

In the US, president Donald Trump said warnings from his top infectious diseases expert on the dangers of lifting restrictions too soon were not acceptable.