The director of the World Health Organization for Europe, Hans Kluge, assured that the omicron variant of the coronavirus might cause the contagion of 60% of Europeans before the start of March, but following this contagion might start the end of the pandemic.
Kluge said that while one must be careful considering the versatility of COVID-19, what might happen is that, following the wave of infections by the omicron variant ends, the world live “a few weeks or months of global immunity”.
According to the director, this period of global immunity would occur for one of two reasons: either because completed the vaccination schedule or because the population got infected with the virus and managed to get over it, generating antibodies to protect itself.
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After this time of immunity, the coronavirus might return, but not as a pandemic but as an endemic, which implies that what will happen might be foreseen and it might become characteristic of a season like a flu.
Despite this perspective, Kluge stressed that the virus has surprised us more than once during the last two years. “So we have to be cautious.”