Social distancing may be needed until 2022 to stop coronavirus COVID-19 spread, claims study

A new Harvard study has claimed that social distancing may be needed until 2022 to curb the spread of coronavirus COVID-19 pandemic and prevent new surges in infections.

A new Harvard study has claimed that social distancing may be needed until 2022 to curb the spread of coronavirus COVID-19 pandemic and prevent new surges in infections.  

According to researchers, lifting of social distancing measures all at once could delay the peak but the second surge in infections will become more severe in that case. The findings of the study were published in the Science journal on Tuesday.

The researchers said that a single period of social distancing measures, which is currently in place, will not be enough to curb the spread of coronavirus.

Several health experts have claimed that it is highly unlikely that COVID-19 will be eradicated by intensive public health measures like Sars-CoV-1 and it is expected that its transmission could circulate seasonally just like pandemic influenza.

The researchers from Harvard University's T.H. Chan School of Public Health developed model of multi-year interactions using data on seasonality from other known human coronaviruses, reported Daily Mail.
 
"Our goal in modelling such policies is not to endorse them but to identify likely trajectories of the epidemic under alternative approaches," the researchers wrote. 

The reseachers added that additional interventions, including expanded critical care capacity and an effective therapeutic, could help in improving the success of intermittent distancing and lead to the acquisition of herd immunity.

"Longitudinal serological studies are urgently needed to determine the extent and duration of immunity to Sars-CoV-2 (COVID-19). Even in the event of apparent elimination, Sars-CoV-2 (COVID-19) surveillance should be maintained since a resurgence in contagion could be possible as late as 2024," noted the researchers.