‘Many people could still get infected’

A “LARGE proportion” of the public remains susceptible to Covid-19, the World Health Organisation (WHO) has warned.

The global health body said that early results from seroepidemiologic surveys from around the world - which monitor levels of immunity within a population - suggest that a “relatively small percentage of the population may have been infected”.

Speaking in a press briefing from Geneva, WHO director general Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, said that even in heavily affected areas, it appeared low numbers had been infected.

“WHO is providing technical, scientific and financial support for the rollout of seroepidemiologic surveys across the world,” he said.

“Early data from some of these studies suggests that a relatively small percentage of the population may have been infected, even in heavily affected areas - not more than 2 to 3%.”

Dr Maria van Kerkhove, WHO’s technical lead for Covid-19, added: “We absolutely must remain vigilant, because what we’re learning from these serologic studies - these early serologic studies, even with all of their faults and all of the limitations - a lower proportion of people are actually, it appears are infected. And that means a large proportion of the public remains susceptible.

“So that means that the virus can take off again.

“And so we need to ensure that the measures that are put in place [to transition out of lockdown] are done carefully.

“But also that when they are taken away, they are also done in a slow and staggered, controlled way, and that the systems are in place and the people are there to detect these cases, find the virus, find contacts and have locations where they can be cared for safely.”

When asked about vaccines, Dr van Kerkhove welcomed the rapid and safe development of a vaccine, adding: “There are more than 10,000 full genome sequences that have been made publicly available from all over the world. And there are a large number of scientists and virologists who are looking in detail at each full genome sequence that is available.

“And what we see, among these 10,000 viruses, is that it is relatively stable. There are little changes, normal changes in viruses, but nothing that’s unexpected. And so the development of a vaccine on viruses that are available is good.

“There are many vaccine candidates that are in in development and we’re working with many partners to accelerate