Health experts say COVID-19 won't be endemic yet: report

LOS ANGELES - Health experts say that COVID-19 won't be endemic yet, American newspaper USA Today reported Monday.

Though health experts expect cases to rise, they said the wave won't be as devastating as the previous two summers or the surge of the Omicron variant of the coronavirus, the report said.

Though the unpredictable coronavirus makes it difficult to pinpoint what the summer will look like, experts have a few theories. The worst-case scenario is the emergence of a potent variant that isn't dulled by vaccines and previous infections, causing a large wave of cases, hospitalizations and deaths, according to the report.

"A full surge over the summer is going to be really dependent on a variant fully emerging. That tends to be the biggest trigger that will send us into a surge," Dr. Keri Althoff, professor of epidemiology at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, was quoted as saying, noting that "those transmissible variants are good at finding pockets of unvaccinated people, and those people are more at risk of hospitalization and death."

The best-case scenario is a sustained level of low transmission and no new variants, the report added.

The report pointed out that it's still far from an endemic phase, when COVID-19 would become like the seasonal flu, bringing a week or two of misery but low risk of severe disease or death.

For COVID-19 to be considered endemic, scientists must determine an acceptable level of transmission. That hasn't happened, the report noted, citing Althoff.