The coronavirus pandemic may come to an end in 2022 since chances are that there will be no more major outbreaks of the infection after the Omicron wave is over, World Health Organization (WHO) Representative in Russia Melita Vujnovic said.
"It’s hard to make predictions at the moment but we hope that if nothing else happens, the pandemic may end in 2022," she pointed out. "What does an end to the pandemic mean? It means that there will be no major outbreaks, but it doesn’t mean that the virus will vanish. A great number of cases means that the virus is capable of mutating so we don’t know how the situation will unfold. However, there is cautious optimism that major outbreaks will end once Omicron spreads across the globe," TASS cited her as saying.
According to Vujnovic, the WHO is trying to predict when it will happen, but it’s difficult because countries "are now changing their testing strategies." She explained that the Omicron strain was very contagious and was spreading quickly, while some countries did not have the money to test everyone given the large number of patients without symptoms. "The picture that we are seeing does not fully reflect the exact number of cases as opposed to what things were like when the pandemic just broke out and the Delta strain started spreading," the WHO envoy concluded.
