Covid-19 moving towards being an endemic – WHO expert

The Covid-19 pandemic is moving towards a phase where it will become an endemic with which people will have to live, Matshidiso Moeti, the Regional Director of World Health Organisation Regional Office for Africa, has said.

She was speaking during an online press conference on Thursday, February 10, where she, along with several other African health leaders discussed the Covid-19 response across the continent during the past two years.

“The pandemic is moving into a different phase. We have had several waves, we have had a very intense transmission with very severe consequences as each wave has peaked, and then we have had a reduction in cases. So we think that we are moving now into, especially with the vaccination expected to increase, what might become a kind of endemic – living with the virus.”

“I believe that we are transitioning from the pandemic phase and we will now need to manage the presence of this virus in the long term,” she added.

She said that with increased levels of vaccination and other tools, it is possible to minimize the level of the infection peaks on the continent.

“It will be a matter - very much in my view - of adjusting the tools (and) developing new tools. We need a tool like a vaccine to protect us from transmission if not severe illnesses. We need to be able to use data locally, and put in place those measures that will prevent transmission,” she said.

“So, I think as people, we will need to learn to get used to having to go back to wearing masks and reducing gatherings as these waves go up. And then as they go down, restoring normal life again,” she added.

She noted among other things that what African medics have learnt during the pandemic is that it is not just public health measures that are important, but also socio-economic ones.

“The lessons that we have learnt from both the example of the flu and the (Covid-19) pandemic so far, I think, are making us very alert about what needs to be done at different levels - what needs to be done at the community level, what needs to be done within countries, what needs to be done internationally, and then what needs to be done at the global level in terms of how to learn and put in place the platforms and measures that will perform better,” she said.

According to statistics from the Africa Centres for Disease Control (Africa CDC), by Tuesday, February 8, the cumulative number of Covid-19 infections in Africa had reached 10,958,474.

Of these, 10,023,056 recoveries were registered, and 242,420 related deaths were reported.

Out of the total African population, 16.84 percent of the people have been partially vaccinated (1 dose), 11.69 percent are fully vaccinated (2 doses), and 0.74 percent have received the booster (third dose).