SO, HOW FAR FROM THE END?

Unless something very different happens in the southern hemisphere, coronavirus may never go away and the disease may ultimately not be containable

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AFTER SIX months of the COVID-19 infection outbreak, almost all its impacts have been assessed, but the question that still remains unanswered is: when will the pandemic end? In a pandemic, this is a question of utmost desperation, but we cannot put an end date to it. The world raised this question in early March with a certainty that the modern world would tackle the pandemic effectively and unlike in the past, curtailment would be faster. But the situation does not support this.

As dozens of simulated situations, plotted in graphs, make the rounds with the forecast of the next five to seven months as the probable end of the pandemic, the world is asking yet another question: is it containable? This is a question that reflects people’s surrender and acceptance to the invisible virus that has been living up to its genetic trait: to colonise human hosts as fast as possible and thrive. For the virus, the present situation is turning out favourable since it jumped into the human host somewhere in December last year. More and more countries are in phases of unlockdown, thus breaking the barriers of physical distances much needed to stop the spread.