Sydney:
Five years after Covid-19 turned the world upside down, the virus is still infecting and killing people around the world – albeit at much lower levels than at the height of the pandemic.
Here is the current state of the piece.
'Still with us'
According to the World Health Organization (WHO), approximately 777 million cases of Covid-19 and more than seven million deaths have been officially recorded since the first infections in December 2019.
However, the actual toll is believed to be much higher.
The pandemic has also crippled healthcare systems, crashed economies and sent the populations of many countries into lockdown.
In the second half of 2022, infection and death rates declined due to growing immunity from vaccinations or previous infections. The virus also mutated and became less severe.
In May 2023, the WHO declared that the emergency phase of the pandemic was over.
Since then, experts say, the virus appears to have gradually become endemic, with occasional resurgences similar to those of the flu, although less seasonal.
It has also largely disappeared from the public eye.
“The world wants to forget about this pathogen that is still with us, and I think people want to put Covid in the past as if it's over – and in many ways pretend it didn't happen – because it's been so traumatic. Maria Van Kerkhove, WHO's director of pandemic preparedness, said this last month.
According to the WHO, there were more than 3,000 deaths from Covid in 27 countries from October to November last year.
More than 95 percent of official Covid deaths were recorded between 2020 and 2022.
Variants
Since the Omicron variant emerged in November 2021, a succession of its subvariants have replaced each other as the dominant strain around the world.
The Omicron variant KP.3.1.1 is currently the most common.
The rising XEC is the only 'variant under surveillance' by the WHO, although the United Nations agency assesses the global health risk as low.
None of the successive Omicron subvariants have been noticeably more severe than others, although some experts warn it is not out of the question that future strains could be more transmissible or more deadly.
Vaccines and treatments
Covid vaccines were developed in record time and have proven to be a powerful weapon against the virus, with more than 13.6 billion doses administered worldwide to date.
However, rich countries bought up a large share of the early doses, creating an uneven distribution around the world.
Booster shots updated for the JN.1 Omicron subvariant are still recommended in some countries, especially for high-risk groups such as the elderly.
However, the WHO has said that most people – including the elderly – have not kept up with their booster injections.
Even among healthcare workers, the rate of booster drug use was below one percent by 2024, the WHO said.
Long Covid
Millions of people have been affected by long-term Covid-19, a still little-understood condition that persists for months after initial infection.
Common symptoms include fatigue, brain fog, and shortness of breath.
About six percent of people infected with the coronavirus develop long-term Covid, the WHO said last month, adding that the condition “continues to pose a significant burden on healthcare systems”.
Much about long Covid remains unknown. There are no tests or treatments. Multiple Covid infections appear to increase the chance of developing the condition.
Future pandemics?
Scientists have warned that a new pandemic will strike sooner or later, urging the world to learn the lessons of Covid and prepare for next time.
Attention has focused lately on bird flu (H5N1), especially after the United States reported its first human death from the virus on Monday.
The patient in Louisiana had underlying medical conditions and contracted H5N1 after being exposed to infected birds, US health authorities said, stressing there was no evidence of person-to-person transmission.
Since the end of 2021, WHO member states have been negotiating a first-of-its-kind global treaty on pandemic prevention, preparedness and response.
However, an agreement has remained elusive before the May deadline, with a major fault line between Western countries and poorer countries wary of being sidelined when the next pandemic arises.
The Covid pandemic also caused a huge increase in skepticism and misinformation about vaccines.
Experts have warned about the prospect of vaccine skeptic and conspiracy theorist Robert F. Kennedy Jr. – elected Secretary of Health by US President Donald Trump – will be in charge of the US response to a potential pandemic threat for the next four years.
(This story has not been edited by Our staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)