COVID-19 pandemic to end in 1-2 years - infectious diseases specialist

 

The coronavirus pandemic will not end earlier than in 12-24 months and the virus adaptation process is underway now, infectious diseases specialist Evgeny Timakov said.

"The pandemic will not end earlier than in a year or two. It will take four or five years for the virus to adapt, with persistent mutations. Three years of the active process and two years of adaptation. We have passed through three years of the active process. The adaptation is underway now, it will exactly take a year or two if new lines do not appear," TASS cited the expert as saying.

New coronavirus lines may appear if the individual’s immunity is very weakened, Timakov said. The coronavirus has turned to "a typical acute respiratory viral infection" and the majority of Russian has already become immune to circulating virus variants, he added.

According to the Russian consumer health watchdog data as of January 17, the coronavirus infection rate in Russia gained almost 40% over the week. All the infection cases are associated with the Omicron strain.