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COVID-19 is unlikely to go away completely.

This is the advisory from the Ministry of Health this month.

The Ministry says there are still many unknown variables.

Permanent Secretary for Health Doctor James Fong states that virologists wonder whether it will behave like other coronaviruses – many of which cause the common cold and may end up reappearing seasonally, as most of our viruses do.

Permanent Secretary for Health Doctor James Fong.

In prior epidemics, viruses eventually reach a saturation threshold, meaning most of the population will be or has already been infected. At this point, when the virus has fewer people to infect, the epidemic will decrease naturally.

Hopefully, this will equate to an endemic instead of a pandemic.

The hope is that if COVID-19 is not eliminated, it would become more like the common cold.

Fiji currently have 38 active cases after 228 tests.

The test positivity rate is currently 30%.