Dhaka, June 22 -- The global death toll of the now-raging pandemic may soon reach the border of half a million. The number continues to crawl upward. A few countries are experiencing recurrence of the scourge in a new zone after their earlier affected areas were declared free of the virus.

In such a situation, pandemic experts come up with a grim prediction. As they feel, the planet earth may not be completely free of Covid-19. Since it keeps mutating at a rapid speed in different regions into localised and unique forms, the root virus is feared to survive in one or another form in some regions.

After it struck the worldover one and half decades back, the virus of the2002-2004 epidemic of SARS, now considered the parent pathogen of Covi...