A top professor has warned Australians will battle Covid outbreaks ‘indefinitely’, as the country reaches the five-year anniversary of the onset of the pandemic.

Variant LP.8.1 was identified as the main cause of large outbreaks overseas in late 2024 and early 2025, and was responsible for three in five Covid cases in the UK in March.

In February, the World Health Organisation identified the strain as one of two increasing on a global scale, though the risk to public health was classified as low.

While the variant does not appear to cause worse symptoms than its predecessors, recent testing has found it could be more contagious.

Several factors have sparked an explosion in cases according to associate professor James Trauer, a respiratory and public health physician from Monash University.

‘Immunity wanes pretty substantially over three to six months, [but] also the virus evolves,’ he told Daily Mail Australia this week.

The associate professor said the immunity people developed from previous Covid infections will not fully protect them against LP.8.1.

‘We’re going to see Covid epidemics indefinitely for many years into the future because immunity does wane fairly rapidly,’ he said.

Australians are bracing for an explosion of Covid cases this winter as the fifth anniversary for the pandemic passes (pictured, Sydney’s CBD)
Australians are bracing for an explosion of Covid cases this winter as the fifth anniversary for the pandemic passes (pictured, Sydney’s CBD)

Covid samples are seen being tested in a NSW Health pathology lab in Sydney’s east
Covid samples are seen being tested in a NSW Health pathology lab in Sydney’s east

What can Australians do?

Prof Trauer said the best protection for people, particularly those who are immunocompromised or vulnerable to Covid, is through vaccination.

‘The most recent vaccines are likely to be the most protective against the [variant] that’s around at the moment,’ he said.

But he added that Australians ‘don’t need to panic or worry about it the way we did when Covid first emerged’.

‘It’s a totally different kettle of fish,’ he said.

Who needs to get a Covid vaccine?
For young, healthy people, particularly those without symptoms, the physician said there is no reason to change daily behaviour.

‘If you do have symptoms, then also be conscious of that and and don’t go into situations where you could infect somebody who is elderly or at higher risk,’ he said.

The best way for people to be protected against Covid is by receiving a vaccine, a respiratory and public health physician has recommended (pictured, medical staff in Melbourne in 2020)