Scientists at the University of Louisville, Johns Hopkins University and the Joint Center for Artificial Intelligence of the US Department of Defense have revealed that air temperature directly affects the likelihood of transmission of the SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus. This is reported in an article published in PLOS ONE magazine.
The researchers compared daily low temperatures and reported cases of COVID-19 in 50 countries in the Northern Hemisphere between January 22 and April 6, 2020. It turned out that with an increase in air temperature, the increase in new cases of COVID-19 decreases. So, at temperatures from 0 to 37 degrees Celsius, an increase of 1.8 degrees reduces the growth of new infections by one percent.
The experts concluded that the transmission of COVID-19 slows down in the summer months, like other seasonal respiratory viruses. However, other factors, including social isolation and distancing, also contribute to the rise in new cases. It is known that there was an increase in the incidence in the US in the summer months of 2020, but scientists believe that if summer temperatures were low, the number of new cases would be even higher.
