Covid-19 will never become an endemic disease and continue to drive epidemic waves. “Covid will not magically turn into a malaria-like endemic infection where levels stay constant for long periods," Raina MacIntyre, a professor of global biosecurity at the University of New South Wales in Sydney, was quoted as saying by CNBC.
She explained this by pointing out that the number of infections of an endemic disease does not change rapidly and do so typically over the course of a few years.
However, in the case of coronavirus, the infections rise rapidly over periods of days to weeks. Also taking the instance of the R-value, MacIntyre stated that if the number is greater than 1, growth is exponential, meaning the virus is becoming more prevalent and the conditions for an epidemic are present.
In such cases, recurrent epidemic waves for respiratory transmitted epidemic infections are also often observed, as was seen with smallpox, measles and influenza, she said.