"At Least 5 More Years... Other Variants Will Continue After Omicron, UK Report Reveals"

[Image source=Reuters Yonhap News]

[Asia Economy Reporter Hwang Sumi] A UK report has been released predicting that the impact of COVID-19 will continue to trouble the country for at least the next five years.

According to local media such as The Sunday Times on the 3rd (local time), the expert group SPI-M, which presents scientific modeling results related to the pandemic, disclosed a report containing this information to the UK government.

The report observed, "COVID-19 will pose a threat to the UK's National Health Service (NHS) for at least the next five years, and it will take at least five more years for COVID-19 to settle into a predictable endemic state without the threat of overwhelming the healthcare system." It also predicted that COVID-19 vaccination and diagnostic testing will be needed long-term for more than ten years.

This report predicted the future based on data on infection status and vaccination impact in the UK as of the 22nd of last month. At that time, the new variant Omicron, which is currently spreading worldwide, had not yet been reported to the World Health Organization (WHO). Therefore, foreign media reported that the report did not include any information related to Omicron.

The report also stated that this observation does not include future policy or behavioral changes, so changes may occur.

Meanwhile, there is also a forecast that the Omicron variant will become the dominant strain worldwide. Dr. Leong Hoe Nam, an infectious disease specialist in Singapore, said in an interview with US CNBC on the 2nd, "Omicron will dominate and overwhelm the world within 3 to 6 months."

Additionally, Professor Paul Hunter of the University of East Anglia in the UK was quoted by The Sunday Times as saying, "I think the possibility that Omicron will be the last variant of concern is very low," and "infections will not stop and will continue."

Professor Paul Hunter added, "The COVID-19 pandemic will end when infections occur but COVID-19 no longer causes severe illness."

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.