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Too early to say COVID-19 has become seasonal disease, expert says

According to him, there are two scenarios for the end of the coronavirus pandemic

MOSCOW, July 31. /TASS/. It will be possible to say for sure if the coronavirus has become a seasonal disease in a year, immunologist and specialist in particularly dangerous infections Vladislav Zhemchugov told TASS.

According to him, there are two scenarios for the end of the coronavirus pandemic. Under one of them, the infection will turn into a flu-like seasonal disease.

"Next spring, we will see if the wave ends in a flu-like disease or persists through the summer. We need time to figure out if [the coronavirus] has become a seasonal disease," the expert emphasized.

However, Zhemchugov believes that the more likely scenario is that the coronavirus will turn into a natural focal infection. In this case, the virus will find a natural carrier, the expert said. "When the level of herd immunity drops, it will once again start circulating among humans like the plague and Ebola," the expert concluded.