WHO official believes COVID-19 will end at the beginning of 2022

The World Health Organization (WHO) regional director for Europe said he believes the coronavirus outbreak will end in early 2022.

Hans Kluge told Danish state broadcaster DR that COVID-19 will “still be prevalent in 2021, but it will be more manageable than in 2020.”

Kluge said there is more information concerning the virus compared to 2020, when it first began spreading, adding “Stating that the worst scenarios are now over,”

He cautioned, however, that no one can know the future of the COVID-19 pandemic in advance.

“There will continue to be a virus, but I don’t think restrictions will be needed. This is an optimistic message,” he said.

Kluge said mutations are normal and the virus is trying to adapt to the person infected, but the rapid spread of the mutations is a concern for them.

Adding that the WHO is closely monitoring the effectiveness of vaccines developed against COVID-19 due to the fast-spreading types of the virus, he said vaccines can be altered based on the new mutations if necessary and there is no need to produce them from the ground up.

He said mutations will not make the virus out of control but noted that countries whose health care systems are already under pressure could come under even more pressure, which makes it necessary to take the mutations very seriously.

Kluge indicated that the biggest problem will emerge when those who are vaccinated are in the same environment as those who are not, so scheduling is a very important factor.

The World Health Organization said last week that the global figure of new coronavirus cases decreased by 500,000 last week to 2.7 million, a 16 percent drop over the previous week. In the first full week of January, new coronavirus cases had peaked at nearly 5 million.

The drop in new global cases and deaths comes as more countries roll out vaccines.