The coronavirus is not going to go away so we must learn to live with it, the World Health Organization (WHO)'s special envoy for COVID-19, David Nabarro has said, according to the BBC.

He reportedly told Hardtalk's Stephen Sackur that it was not known how long it would take to develop a treatment or a vaccine.

“We have all got to learn to live with this virus, to do our business with this virus in our presence, to have social relations with this virus in our presence and not to be continuously having to be in lockdown because of the widespread infections that can occur," Mr. Nabarro added.

According to data from Johns Hopkins University, the novel coronavirus (COVID-19) has killed more than 3.7 million people since the outbreak emerged in China in December 2019.

To-date, more than 2 billion people have reportedly been vaccinated against COVID-19.