Is Temperature A Coronavirus Deterrent – Yes and No

Coronavirus has got the world to a screeching halt with the pandemic taking more than 50,000 lives and infecting over 10 lakh people all over the world. The virus has brought some of the most developed nations to its knees, thwarting every claim of having a world class medical facility. Here is the list of top 15 countries who are worst affected by the novel coronavirus:

Note : Data collected as on April 04, 2020, 06:09 GMT

Now, in the wake of COVID-19 rumors and fake news also took the entire world by storm with people making absurd claims of having found a permanent solution to end Coronavirus and so on. Even though, World Health Organization and other medical research institutes around the world have been explaining people that Social Distancing in the best way to fight this Wuhan emerged Virus, there has been no dearth of misinformation.

One of such claims was heat being a deterrent to the novel Coronavirus and therefore countries with hot and humid climate at lesser risk. Most of the countries in the table above are experiencing temperature between 11C and 15C at the time of outbreak with minimal sunlight. However, that does not validate the myth that high temperature can act as a shield for corona.

Corona spread v/s temperature

How relevant is high temperature?

World Health Organization has released the advisory suggesting that there is no correlation between high temperature and Coronavirus. In its public advice page, the organization states that an individual is prone to catch the virus irrespective of the Sun or temperature. Further, the advisory says that exposing to the temperature of 25 degree Celsius or more does not safeguards one from getting infected. The world health organization further states that washing hands regularly is one of the best ways to avoid the infection.

However, a recent study by AccuWeather states that increase in temperature and humidity seem to have reduced the spread of Covid-19. In their findings, the researchers stated that a nominal increase of just 1 degree Celsius seems to have lowered the virus transmission significantly. Read their entire research paper here: https://poseidon01.ssrn.com/delivery.php?ID=567087069087071070088127071002114125049002010083005045124081093108125017070116094067019011000043062111054092000014065119075094110049062017017089019011066087121026102032032038088106072086081006118094105072085087124115124010121086086088065025009007073110&EXT=pdf

Some experts like Laxman Jessani, Consultant, Infectious Diseases, Apollo Hospitals, Navi Mumbai do accept that Coronavirus is heat labile but the exact threshold temperature to render the virus useless is yet to be known. He also added that Coronavirus can survive in the human body at the temperature of 37 degree Celsius.

The bottom line

While Sun has been known as the best disinfectant since the Vedic era, experts are still debating on the relation between temperature and Coronavirus impact. There have been progressive researches and studies on the subject but for now people should follow proven ways to tackle Coronavirus.

Washing and sanitizing hands regularly along with Social distancing is the best way to combat Covid-19.