WHO chief scientist Soumya Swaminathan on what Covid might have in store in its third year

As the world gradually reopens after the latest wave of Covid, the question on people's minds worldwide is what life will be like in the third year of the pandemic.

According to WHO chief scientist Soumya Swaminathan, while the primary health impacts of Covid might come to an end this year, it won't likely be possible to go back to living life as one did before 2019.

Caution will have to be the watchword, she said.

Talking of a possible end to the pandemic, she said that might happen towards the end of this year. The end will likely take longer than people are currently expecting, she added.

The world will not wholly get rid of the virus, but people will learn to live with it, Swaminathan said. According to her, that would necessitate keeping masks on, even in cases of ordinary flu.

More than the virus itself, the time has now come to think of its impact on societies and economies, he said.

Most of all, post-pandemic life will require us to be vigilant about possible new variants, she said, adding that such vigil would eventually lead to a much better global surveillance system.

In early February, Swaminathan had said that the world was not yet at the end of the pandemic. There would be more coronavirus variants, she had cautioned.

"We have seen the virus evolve, mutate ... so we know there will be more variants, more variants of concern, so we are not at the end of the pandemic," she had told the media.