WHO special envoy says COVID-19 will be a virus that ‘stalks the human race for quite a long time’

World Health Organization (WHO) special envoy David Nabarro said Sunday there will likely continue to be small outbreaks of the novel coronavirus until the development and widespread distribution of a vaccine.

“We’re not so sure that it will come in waves in the way that influenza does. We think it is going to be a virus that stalks the human race for quite a long time to come until we can all have a vaccine that will protect us and that there will be small outbreaks that will emerge sporadically and they will break through our defenses,” Nabarro said on NBC’s “Meet the Press.” 

{mosads}He said the key to dealing with this virus is for every community to have a “kind of defensive shield” in order to pick cases up as they appear, isolate them and stop outbreaks from developing. 

“It is going to be necessary for every single country to have that capacity,” he said. “And so we’re actually encouraging countries to put that in place now, and that will facilitate releasing lockdowns and prevent further massive outbreaks.”

Asked how he would assess the level of global cooperation right now, Nabarro said he’d like to see “much greater cooperation between leaders.” 

“I’d like to see them uniting and showing the world that they believe that this global threat has to be dealt with through united action between all countries and their people,” he added. 

Globally, there are more than 1.7 million confirmed COVID-19 cases and 110,052 deaths, based on data compiled by Johns Hopkins University.