The World Health Organization's COVID-19 team said on Monday that while the "end" of the pandemic is "in sight," things will "be difficult for the next three months at least."
"I'm afraid we are moving through the marathon, but there's no actual way to say that we're at the end — we can see the end in sight, but we're not there. And there's going to be some bumps before we get there," The WHO's COVID-19 Special Envoy David Nabarro told Sky News in an interview.
He went on to say, "First of all, this virus is continuing to evolve — we have omicron but we'll get more variants. Secondly, it really is affecting the whole world. And, whilst health services in Western Europe are just about coping, in many other parts of the world, they are completely overwhelmed. And thirdly, it's really clear that there's no scope for major restrictions in any country, particularly poor countries."
Nabarro said that "People have just got to keep working and so there are some very tough choices for politicians right now. It's going to be difficult for the next three months at least."
When asked about the possibility of regular COVID-19 surges during the year, Nabarro said in response: "The way this virus is behaving and has behaved really since we first met it, is that it builds up and then surges quite dramatically, and then it comes down again, and then surges again about every three or four months."
He added that "it's difficult to use past behavior to predict the future. And I don't like doing that too much. But I would agree that the pattern, I think, that is going to happen with this virus is continued surges, and living with COVID means being able to prepare for these surges and to react and really quickly when they occur."
Nabarro said, "Life can go on, we can get the economy going again in many countries, but we just have to be really respectful of the virus and that means having really good plans in place for dealing with the surges."