Coronavirus won't vanish in summer: Virologist

New Delhi: While the possibility for reduced spread of SARS-CoV-2 due to hot weather cannot be ruled out, it will be unwarranted to assume that COVID-19 will vanish down the summer, says an Indian virologist. The arrival of summer in India may have raised hopes that hot and humid weather could slow the COVID-19 progression but virologist Naga Suresh Veerapu believes that outbreak and pandemic occurrences often do not follow seasonality.

Veerapu, Assistant Professor, Department of Life Sciences, Shiv Nadar University, Uttar Pradesh noted that it is too early to speculate on the changes in the epidemiological landscape of SARS CoV-2 with the seasons.

"It is sensible to rationalise that high temperature reduces the spread of SARS-CoV-2, unwarranted though assuming the virus vanishes down the summer," he told PTI.

In April, researchers at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in the US announced that a warm and humid weather is linked to slower spread of the novel coronavirus, suggesting that Asian countries experiencing monsoon may experience lesser transmission of the virus. Their study assessed data on the number of COVID-19 infections in different parts of the world and compared it with two parameters of weather from all the regions -- temperature and humidity.