Geneva (Web Desk): World Health Organization (WHO) on Wednesday warned that the novel coronavirus may never be wiped out entirely and the world will have to learn to live with it.
Speaking at a virtual news conference in Geneva, WHO's emergencies director Michael Ryan said that this virus may become just another endemic virus in our communities.
"We have a new virus entering the human population for the first time and therefore it is very hard to predict when we will prevail over it," he said.
Michael Ryan said that in finding a way to conquer the virus is a chance for humanity to take major step forward by finding a vaccine and making it widely accessible.
More than half of humanity has been put under some form of lockdown since the coronavirus crisis began.
But the WHO warned there was no way to guarantee that easing the restrictions would not trigger a second wave of infections.
"Many countries would like to get out of the different measures," said WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus.
"But our recommendation is still the alert at any country should be at the highest level possible."
Ryan added that there was a "long, long way to go" on the path to returning to normal, insisting that countries would have to stay the course.
"There is some magical thinking going on that lockdowns work perfectly and that unlocking lockdowns will go great. Both are fraught with dangers," he said.
The novel coronavirus virus first emerged in Wuhan in China late last year and has since infected more than 4.2 million people and killed nearly 300,000 worldwide.