WHO says India entering endemic stage of COVID-19 | All you need to know

New Delhi| Jagran News Desk: In a recent interview, Dr Soumya Swaminathan, chief scientist of the World Health Organization, mentioned how COVID-19 in India may have entered "some kind of stage of endemicity". Considering the size of India and it's heterogeneity of population and immunity status of people in different parts of the nation, it is very feasible for India to be in this situation for a while, she added. India is one of the hardest hit countries by the novel coronavirus, while still recovering from the second wave of covid-19 pandemic, this new stage of Endemic has raised many questions of what this new stage is and how it it will affect the nation.

What is endemicity?

An endemic is a stage in which a disease is present consistently in a limited or particular area. This can lead to spread of that illness, but the speed and rate is predictable. According to WHO's Chief Scientist, the endemic stage is when the people of that geographical area, learns to live with that virus or disease. Seasonal flu in particular parts of the US or diseases like chichen pox and malaria in India are example of this endemic stage, as the virus is constantly present in a low frequency in the population.

Endemic Vs Pandemic

Covid-19 in March 2020 was declared as a global Pandemic. The WHO describes a pandemic as “worldwide spread of a new disease.” It can be termed as an epidemic that is spread in world and have affected people in every corner of the world.
While endemic is a term for diseases that spread in particular areas or are seasonal, Now the covid 19 in India has entered the stage of endemicity making this virus up for living in india in a low but consistent frequency

What endemic stage means for India, will Covid last forever?

In the recent developments, India has already entered the stage of endemicity. This means the virus will remain in low frequency in some particular areas or with low levels of vaccine can see a upsurge in the cases of covid-19. No single country is covid free for now, however being in total lockdown, and rapid testing have lead to lower cases. While vaccination is going on in the country, covid may take while to completely vanish.

What is the purpose of vaccination?

India till now has vaccinated over 55 crore people in the country and the numbers of people getting their vaccine doses are increasing day by day. There is no solid but numbers getting vaccinated increases the immunity. This new endemic stage requires even higher rates of vaccination for the population to reduce the transmission and prevent any further development.

India has over 3 lakhs active cases now and new cases graph is consistent in some states. According to the data by the Union Health Ministry on Wednesday morning, India logged 37,593 new COVID-19 cases during the last 24 hours which took the total cases in the country to 3,25,12,366.The new endemic stage has even increase the chances of people getting affected who were unaffected till now. Covid-19 endemic stage has only entered but getting vaccinated, wearing masks, and maintaining social distancing in public spaces can eventually lead to its extinction.