Despite strict quarantine measures around the world, coronavirus continues to spread, which in turn has given rise to many rumours, myths and theories. One such belief among people is that the rise in temperature will kill coronavirus.
Recently, the World Health Organization (WHO) launched campaigns to bust myths around it. The WHO said there is “no reason to believe cold weather can kill the new coronavirus,” or other diseases. The WHO also stated that COVID-19 can survive in hot and humid climates.
Shedding some more light on whether the virus can survive hot and humid climates, Dr Om Shrivastav, Director, Infectious Diseases, Jaslok Hospital and Research Centre said, "We don’t know that yet, that if temperature was the only factor in presence of coronavirus than we would not have had a single of virus in countries where the temperature is high."
“I don’t think temperature is alone responsible for coronavirus dying. We are certainly hoping that hot climate will curb the virus outbreak, because that is what has happened to the previous outbreaks. We will come to know only when the temperature rises, which is still about four to six weeks away, but these are just projections and assumptions as of now,” he further added.
While speaking about India coming up with treatment that can kill COVID-19, Dr Shrivastav said, "We are still working on it. But there small observational studies, that have shown to be of great potential. But these studies need to be validated first before they become main stream treatments.”
