Warming Is Slowing The Spread Of The Coronavirus. But Insignificantly

Warming is slowing the spread of the coronavirus. But insignificantly

The rise in temperature to 11 degrees Celsius was associated with a slowdown in the spread of COVID-19. But further warming did not affect the infectivity of the virus. Precipitation and UV index do not significantly affect pathogen transmission.

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American scientists have found that air temperature can affect the transmission of the SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus from person to person, but this effect is small. The new study is published in Clinical Infectious Diseases.

As the SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus spread around the world, the question has been raised repeatedly about whether air temperature and other weather factors affect its transmission. Both ordinary people and scientists were interested in whether the coronavirus will depend on the season, like many other respiratory viruses.

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Scientists analyzed the impact of temperature, UV index and rainfall on the incidence of COVID-19. In their work, they compared the daily number of COVID-19 cases diagnosed in the United States from January 22 to April 3 with weather conditions.

It turned out that the level of temperature actually affects how contagious the virus is. At 11 degrees Celsius (52 degrees Fahrenheit), the infection was less transmitted than at lower temperatures. But the authors of the study did not find a decrease in the infectivity of the virus with a further increase in temperature.

An increase in the UV Index (a measure of the intensity of ultraviolet radiation) has also been associated with a decrease in the incidence of COVID-19, but its effect was found to be negligible. The amount of precipitation did not affect the transmission of infection at all.

“Based on our analysis, it is unlikely that transmission will be significantly slowed down in the summer months simply by increasing temperatures,” commented Shiv T. Sehra, assistant professor at Harvard Medical School and co-author of the study.