Though COVID-19 will not be going completely away any time soon–as soul-crushing as that may sound–it will soon be treated like the flu by medical experts. In other words, COVID will remain within society but it will be treated as a seasonal flu rather than a pandemic.
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No more lockdowns for England
Chris Whitty, England's Chief Medical Officer, said that within two years a wide range of versions of the covid jab will be made available which will guarantee the containment of the virus. However, he also stressed that until then, we must remain cautious to avoid lockdowns from reocurring:
It is not flu, it is a completely different disease, but the point I am making is, here is a seasonal, very dangerous disease that kills thousands of people every year and society has chosen a particular way around it.
He also mentioned not being able to see the UK going under the severe lockdowns that it was subjected to over the last 12 months. And although variants of the coronavirus will continue to appear, the top medic said that science will eventually find a way to catch up to the mutations.
I don’t think though this should be seen as an indefinite posture, I think this is a matter of probably the next year or two whilst we understand how to do this and find a way of responding rapidly to variants.
He added:
So I think technology will find a way through this in the long run, but we’ve got a period of risk between now and then.
The coronavirus in the UK today
As it stands currently, the UK has had one of the most successful rollout programs in the world especially when compared to other European countries at the moment. France, for instance, will be entering a third national lockdown as of 3 April that will last at least four weeks, in part due to the lack of jabs being administered.
Yesterday, 1 April, the UK recorded 4,478 new daily coronovarius infections with the death toll reaching 51 cases.
