The world must ‘learn to live’ with the coronavirus, a top World Health Organization (WHO) official insisted today.
Dr David Nabarro, a Covid-19 envoy for the UN agency, warned the virus isn’t going away’ for the foreseeable future because it ‘doesn’t get bored’.
But he claimed life ‘can go on’ with robust test and trace systems, designed to stop clusters of cases before they spiral out of control.
Dr Nabarro, however, warned of ‘very bad’ spikes in Covid-19 cases that will lead to ‘economic challenges’ if it’s ‘not done properly’.
He called on countries to do ‘everything’ to control the virus, encouraging people to wash their hands, wear masks and social distance.
His comments follow a major study last night which showed the UK’s test and trace system is currently ‘not good enough’ to prevent a second wave.
Scientists said reopening schools in the UK would result in another crisis that peaks in December — but could be avoided by improving the existing scheme.
Ministers today admitted the struggling coronavirus contact tracing system must improve.
Dr David Nabarro, the UN body’s COVID-19 envoy, said the virus isn’t going away in the foreseeable future, and so we ‘must learn to live with it’
Dr Nabarro told the BBC Radio 4 Today programme: ‘This virus isn’t going away for the foreseeable.
‘This virus is really dangerous and as humanity, as society, we’ve all got to learn to live with it.
‘And if I sound like a really dull person, then too bad, because that’s my message and that’s the message of the WHO.
‘Let’s all work on it together and do it as a community, as society, then we can get on.
‘Otherwise we’ll constantly be pushed back with local lockdowns, other problems, new instructions from authorities and I think that will be more damaging to the future of society than everybody levelling with each other and doing it together.’
Dr Nabarro said it was clear the virus was capable of a resurgence, pointing to spikes in cases in countries that appeared to had recovered.
Parts of Europe, including the UK, Spain and Germany, are all reporting more cases than usual — following a steady decline in infections over May and June.
Dr Nabarro said: ‘As it surges back, the way you stop outbreaks developing is through having well functioning contact tracing linked to testing with isolation of people who have symptoms or who’ve been in contact.
‘And, if we can do that, and do it well, then the surges are kept really small, they’re dealt with quickly and life can go on.
‘If, on the other hand, this testing and tracing and isolation just is not done properly, then you get very bad surges occurring and this will lead to economic challenges.’
Contact tracing involves identifying people who have Covid-19 and interviewing them to find out who they came in contact with.
Those contacts are ideally traced down and told to self-isolate to interrupt the chain of spread.
It relies on rapid testing, the ability to reach all cases and their contacts, and the public abiding by self isolation rules.
Dr Nabarro stressed that the process of testing, tracing and isolation, involves a joint effort between the public and authorities.
He acknowledged that people globally are tiring of restrictions and becoming complacent, which is a concern for controlling the disease.
He said: ‘I hear about people in Berlin protesting at the weekend about being fed up about restrictions. I hear about people in many parts of other European countries saying we’ve had enough of this. And I so understand it.
‘I think all of us are just thinking “when is this going to end?”
‘We have absolutely no choice but to take it seriously and we must not compete with each other about it.’
The UK’s contact tracing system uses call-handlers who were hired by the government.
An NHS smartphone app, considered a key part of the tracing system, was also supposed to be rolled out in May. But it is not yet ready.
Dr Nabarro’s sobering comments come after a major study said British children returning to school in September will trigger a devastating second wave of Covid-19 — unless the test and trace scheme improves.
Twice as many people could be infected than the first wave which would peak in December, scientists said.
But it could be avoided if testing is dramatically ramped up and the contact tracing system becomes better.
Experts found that, to prevent a second wave when schools reopen, the NHS contact tracing system must reach 68 per cent of cases and their contacts.
But the current NHS system is ‘not good enough’, according to researchers from University College London and the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine.
It reaches half of contacts and only a fraction — around 14 per cent — of symptomatic cases are tested, they said.
It emerged last night that ministers are drawing up plans for testing squads to enter classrooms in areas with a high infection rate to avoid closing down the how school.
The authors said without improvements in testing it will be ‘absolutely essential’ to introduce other measures in September to ‘mitigate’ the effects of schools opening.
This could mean pubs are forced to shut or greater restrictions are placed on people meeting indoors — an idea which has been floated by other scientists.
A different study published last month found contact tracers need to catch 80 per cent of infections and test suspected patients within three days to keep coronavirus epidemics squashed.
Researchers from the University of Utrecht in the Netherlands said the reproduction R rate can be kept under one as long as only two in 10 patients slip under the radar.
Any more than that risks driving the R — the average number of people each coronavirus patient infects — to the point at which the crisis could spiral again.
And people need to be swabbed and given results within three days to ensure they aren’t tempted to go outside and mingle with others when results don’t come back.
The UK’s contact tracing system is only finding 77.6 per cent of patients who test positive.
And since the launch of Test and Trace, 83 per cent of close contacts of people who have tested positive for Covid-19 have been reached through the tracing system and asked to self-isolate.
One in four people who were tested for Covid-19 in the week ending July 22 at a regional site or mobile testing unit have to wait more than 24 hours for their test result.
This is despite the Prime Minister Boris Johnson pledging that, by the end of June, the results of all in-person tests would back within 24 hours.
The Government’s own scientific advisers have been banging the drum about the need to catch 80 per cent of infections throughout the crisis.