Covid outbreak won't end till 60-70% of humans are immune: WEF shares worrying scenarios

The World Economic Forum on Wednesday shared a report published in the United States which said that the Coronavirus pandemic may last until 2022. A group of researchers at the Center for Infectious Disease Research and Policy (CIDRAP) suggest that the Coronavirus outbreak won't end until 60% to 70% of the human population is immune to the virus, which may take between 18 and 24 months.

'This thing's not going to stop...'

The experts postulated three scenarios for how the COVID-19 pandemic will progress. The worst-case scenario among these three projections involves a second, larger wave of infections this fall and winter. The report's authors suggest this is the most likely outcome, and states need to prepare for it.

"This thing's not going to stop until it infects 60 to 70% of people," Michael Osterholm, report author and the director of CIDRAP, told CNN. "The idea that this is going to be done soon defies microbiology."

The Coronavirus pandemic has now claimed more than 290,000 lives worldwide, according to an AFP tally of official sources at 22:00 GMT on Tuesday. In total, 290,477 deaths have been registered, with Europe accounting for 159,205 of them. The United States is the worst-affected country with 82,105 deaths, followed by Britain (32,692), Italy (30,911), France (26,991) and Spain.

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In a big push to revive the Coronavirus-hit economy, Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Tuesday announced massive new financial incentives on top of the previously announced packages for a combined stimulus of Rs 20 lakh crore, saying the COVID-19 crisis has provided India with an opportunity to become self-reliant and emerge as the best in the world.

Meanwhile, with a spike of 3,525 COVID-19 cases and 122 deaths in the last 24 hours, total positive cases in India has risen to 74,281, including 47,480 active cases, 24,386 cured/discharged/migrated cases and 2,415 deaths, according to the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare

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