WHO Special Envoy Says COVID-19 Will Stalk ‘Human Race’ for a Long Time

A nurse walks outside of Wyckoff Hospital in the Borough of Brooklyn in New York on April 6, 2020. Bryan R. Smith/AFP via Getty Images

The special envoy to the World Health Organization (WHO) said he does not expect the CCP virus to disappear entirely until a vaccine is developed.

“We think it’s going to be a virus that stalks the human race for quite a long time to come until we can all have a vaccine to protect us,” Dr. David Nabarro, the special representative for the WHO, told NBC’s “Meet the Press” on Sunday.

The official warned that countries should only begin to let up on social distancing procedures until they can track and isolate new cases.

“So the key for this particular virus is that every community, as a kind of defensive shield, can pick up cases as soon as they appear, isolate them and stop outbreaks from developing,” Nabarro added. “It’s going to be necessary for every single country to have that capacity.”

Nabarro was also asked what the United States can expect in the coming months from the CCP (Chinese Communist Party) virus as countries struggle to cope with the pandemic.

“There will be small outbreaks that will emerge sporadically and they will break through our defenses,” he said.

An EMT tends to a COVID-19 patient arriving to the Montefiore Medical Center Wakefield Campus in the Bronx borough of New York City on April 6, 2020. John Moore/Getty Images

He noted that communities across the world will have to develop infrastructure and capacity to defend against the virus, which emerged late last year in Wuhan, China, before turning into a global pandemic. Critics of the CCP have said that mismanagement and a regime-implemented coverup exacerbated the spread of the virus, which causes the disease COVID-19.

“We are not so sure it will come in waves in the way that influenza does. We think it’s going to be a virus that stalks the human race for a quite a long time to come, until we can all have a vaccine that will protect us,” Nabarro said.

In the United States, roughly 2,000 deaths a day were reported for the last four days in a row, the largest number in and around New York City. Even that is viewed as understated, as New York is still figuring out how best to include a surge in deaths at home in its official statistics.

President Donald Trump mulled over when the country might begin to see a return to normality. The Trump administration sees May 1 as a target date for relaxing the stay-at-home restrictions, said commissioner of the Food and Drug Administration Stephen Hahn on Sunday. But Hahn cautioned that it was still too early to say whether that goal would be met.

Reuters contributed to this report.