"I therefore find the term 'permanent wave' more appropriate. The infections will not disappear, but we will have to learn how to integrate the virus into our everyday lives." As with other corona viruses, one will always see a decrease in infections in summer, an increase in autumn, winter and spring. "I cannot see that we are now in a second wave," Streeck said. "Apart from a few sudden outliers, there is no significant increase, and I don't see an increase like in Spain or Germany.

"I believe that people should be taught to be careful, but still be allowed to do a bit of what is important to them," Streeck added. One should look for pragmatic approaches. "We must abandon the idea of wanting to avoid all infections. This will not be possible. At the same time, we must develop concepts to allow events to happen without them becoming superspreading events."

Frank Ulrich Montgomery of the World Medical Association also expects a long-lasting pandemic, but urged greater caution. "I think we are in a permanent wave," the Chairman of the World Medical Association told Deutschlandfunk radio. "We will have to prepare ourselves for the fact that we will have to live with this virus for a long time and that we will immediately use any slight increase in the number of infections as an alarm signal to take action against it, because the problem with corona is the long incubation periods. So far, Germany has been good in dealing with the pandemic because the population has participated, by and large.

(Original text: dpa / Translation: Mareike Graepel)