Rumor has it that the COVID-19 epidemic will "go away" in April as most of the coronavirus-affected countries and regions are getting warm as the spring and summer seasons roll in.
But according to the World Health Organization (WHO) and some experts, its still too soon to tell.
Though some viruses are seasonal, it is not clear whether the novel coronavirus will behave the same way. Epidemiologists have already cautioned against the bet on the weather to halt the outbreak.
"We don't know if this virus will be seasonal, because we dont have any previous experience with it," Columbia University epidemiologist Stephen Morse said in an article published on FactCheck.org in mid-February. "It's possible it will be seasonal, but it's too early to tell.
Whether the virus will decline by April also depends on factors such as the degree of spread as well as containment efforts, according to the article. Harvard epidemiologist Marc Lipsitch doesn't assume that changes in the weather will make a big difference in how the virus spreads: COVID-19 has now been documented around the world. If the virus is anything like a typical flu, it may worsen in Southern Hemisphere regions as the seasons change," she shared in a story published on the National Geographic website.
On Friday, Michael Ryan, Executive Director of the WHO Health Emergencies Program, told a daily briefing in Geneva that there is no evidence suggesting COVID-19 will disappear in summer as of yet: We do not know yet what the activity or behavior of the virus will be in different climatic conditions," said Ryan, warning against the assumption that the virus would just disappear on its own in the summertime like influenza.
"We have to assume the virus will continue to have the capacity to spread," he added.
As of Monday, WHO reported 104 infected countries and regions with a total of 109,578 COVID-19 cases.
Source: xinhua
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