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Coronavirus will return as a seasonal virus like the flu, scientists have said as fears grow the deadly disease could blight the world for a decade.

A group of Chinese viral and medical researchers told reporters in Beijing on Monday that the virus will likely not disappear like SARS did because it can infect asymptomatic carriers.

This means that people can spread the virus without experiencing its symptoms like a fever and cough, making it difficult to track its spread.

Jin Qi, director of the Institute of Pathogen Biology at the Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences, said: "This is very likely to be an epidemic that co-exists with humans for a long time, becomes seasonal and is sustained within human bodies."

(Image: James Veysey/Shutterstock)

According to Bloomberg, the Chinese researchers also revealed that they saw no evidence that the virus's spread will slow during the summer.

However, Wang Guiqiang, head of the infectious diseases department of Peking University First Hospital, said: "The virus is heat sensitive, but that's when it's exposed to 56 degrees Celsius for 30 minutes and the weather is never going to get that hot.

"So globally, even during the summer, the chance of cases going down significantly is small."

It comes amid fears that a world completely free from coronavirus could be up to a decade away unless the international community acts on vaccinating the most vulnerable societies.

(Image: Getty Images for International Rescue Committee)

Speaking to the BBC’s Coronavirus Newscast, former foreign secretary David Miliband, who is now president and CEO of the International Rescue Committee, said he feared that it could be “five or ten years" before the people his organisation helps "get any sniff of a vaccine”.

"The underlying health vulnerabilities mean that this is going to hit and it’s not going to be stopped until it’s gone really widespread," the former Labour politician continued.

"We’ve got maybe four weeks to do vital preventative work."

Mr Miliband said: "We've got our five point plan about how to handle the virus. It's about prevention, the short-term primary healthcare, then there's the collateral damage we have to mitigate, especially on women and girls, we're trying to pivot our services so that we cary on with our education services, our child protection services but then the fifth part is to when the vaccine comes, who gets it?

"I did hear that the UK Government has taken a good initiative in this in trying to convene some kind of international discussion, I haven't got the details yet, for making sure there is widespread access to the vaccine because I'll tell you my obvious fear, that it's five or ten years before the people we're helping get any sniff of a vaccine.

"I hope that's true that that's one of the things the British Government is thinking about because in general the main donor countries to the global aid effort have been pretty myopic about the crisis at the moment, they're obviously focused on the home front, there's not been much thinking about the global situation."

He added: "The disease won't be truly vanquished anywhere until it's vanquished everywhere."

Asked about the UK Government’s response to the pandemic so far, Mr Miliband said he was “worried”.

“I’m worried about the testing. I’m obviously relieved at the way the NHS has pulled through and people have pulled together.

“And I'm worried that there's almost a feeling that the debate about the lockdown is an on-off switch and it isn't.”

Mr Miliband added that he felt there was no going back to the way things were.

“There's no going back to the old normal. There's going to be a new normal, and that trust between the government and people is so important to making this work.”