COVID-19 in India may be entering a stage of endemicity when there is a low to moderate degree of transmission, according to World Health Organization Chief Scientist Dr Soumya Swaminathan.

When a community learns to live with a virus, it is said to be in the endemic stage. It’s a far cry from the epidemic stage, when the virus has taken over a community.

Swaminathan expressed confidence that the WHO’s technical panel will approve Covaxin as one of its approved vaccines, adding that this may happen by mid-September.

Swaminathan stated in an interview that given the vastness of India and the variety of population and immunity status in different areas of the country, the scenario may “very very likely” persist with ups and downs in different sections of the country.