SHANGHAI, March 30. /TASS/. The current novel coronavirus pandemic is likely to ebb around autumn, but there is no time frame when it will end, the Shanghai Daily quotes Dr. Zhang Wenhong, of Huashan Hospital, as saying.

"The most beautiful season of the year might be autumn as there is a possibility that the virus might ebb in October. But after that, it will persist for a long time," Zhang said during the second COVID-19 multidisciplinary forum, which was held online with experts from home and abroad.

The daily says that there was no agreement among the panelists on the question of whether the disease would tail off in the summer as temperatures rise.

Lu Shan, a medical professor at the University of Massachusetts, believes that it is critical to concentrate on patients with light symptoms, who account for about 80% of the cases.

Jin Dongyan, a virologist at the University of Hong Kong, said there’s a 30 to 40% probability that the pandemic can be controlled within a year but worried that it would spread all over the world.

An outbreak of the novel coronavirus-related disease in central China late last year has spread to most countries. The World Health Organization has declared a pandemic. According to the latest statistics, more than 730,000 people have contracted the virus around the world. The disease has claimed nearly 35,000 lives.