MEDICAL health expert and Mpilo Central Hospital acting chief executive officer Solwayo Ngwenya has warned of an imminent third wave of the COVID-19 virus. His statement comes after disturbing reports that more than 106 pupils contracted the respiratory virus last week soon after the Easter holidays. Ngwenya bemoaned poor testing facilities in the country and relaxation of contact tracing measures, which were resulting in a high number of cases being detected. He told NewsDay (ND) senior reporter Miriam Mangwaya that people were increasingly becoming complacent and failing to follow prescribed safety regulations, hence government efforts to prevent the onset of the third wave could be in vain. Ngwenya (SN) predicted that the third wave was likely to have a more serious impact than the first and second waves, as people appear to have gotten used to the “beast”. Below are excerpts: ND: People are wondering if the coronavirus pandemic would be over at some point. Do you think we are going to have a post-COVID-19 era? SN: At the moment, talking about post-COVID-19 era is very far from the reality on the ground. As you are aware, the World Health Organisation (WHO) last week started new investigations about the origins of the virus. They haven’t found it yet. So we do not even know if there is going to be an era after the pandemic. Coronavirus could be here for a long time. And the fact that we are letting it spread, it will become endemic, that is, it is going to be widespread and will be common among us. ND: Government is targeting to vaccinate 10 million people, that is, about 60% of the population. If we achieve herd immunity, can we go back to the normal way of life — not wearing masks, sanitising, social distancing and other health protocols? SN: The ambitious target to vaccinate 60% of the population to achieve herd immunity is a very good thing to do, but we do not know if the virus will be mutant and turn out to be other variants. Once the virus changes, the vaccines will become useless and we go back to square one, so that is why we are not probably going back to a life without masks for a very long time. Even after being vaccinated, we still need to mask up, practise social distancing and sanitise. Achieving the 60% herd immunity itself is a mammoth task with a lot of logistical nightmares ahead. It is going to be achieved after a very long time because we have problems with securing vaccines, vaccine hesitancy from the population, misinformation and lack of information. So this is a quagmire going forward. As I said earlier, as long as we allow the virus to spread we might need new vaccines and in future, revaccination. ND: We are approaching winter amid the pandemic. Is the weather change likely to influence the rate of infections? SN: As we approach winter, we are most likely going to see a spike in COVID-19 cases. Not because the low temperatures have an effect on the virus, but because a lot of people will be working in closed spaces to stay warm. Closed spaces are one of the super spreaders of the virus.