It is not clear if Covid-19 will become endemic, an infectious disease specialist has said. Professor David Heymann, a leading expert on infection outbreak control, said it is not possible to predict the "destiny" of a new infection.
He said it is not viable yet to tell whether the new coronavirus will become endemic - or regularly found in society - like seasonal flu or HIV.
The new coronavirus outbreak is on trajectory to continue transmitting "for a time" but it unclear whether it will be long term, he said.
But he warned it "may be that it can't be eliminated as it is now". Citing the situation in China, Prof Heymann, who led the global shutdown of the Sars outbreak in 2003, said that despite "severe lockdown measures" the virus has not