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Scientists from the University of Maryland in the United States found that most cases of the new coronavirus COVID-19 epidemic are in countries located in a single, relatively narrow latitudinal band in the Northern Hemisphere between 30 – 50 degrees. These include Italy, Spain, Iran, the United States, China and South Korea.
In these countries over 241 000 people were infected (based on data from 23.3.2020 at 13:30).
On the basis of this fact they concluded that the virus has the best conditions to spread in countries where the temperature is from +5 to +11 degrees and humidity is from 47 to 79 percent. Scientists from the United Kingdom share the same view. The most optimal temperature for the pathogen is +8.7 degrees. If it warms up, the cause of this disease, according to this hypothesis, will die.
Although Italy and Israel are at approximately the same latitude and both countries are very popular with tourists, in Italy yesterday (22.3.2020) the number of infected people exceeded 59 000, while in Israel there were no more than 1 200 cases. But when the virus began to spread in northern Italy at the end of February and the beginning of March, the temperature in the most affected locations was in the range of +6 to +9. In Tel Aviv it had been at least 2–3 times warmer since the beginning of winter.
When COVID-19 began to spread in South Korea at the beginning of March, several hundred cases of coronavirus infection were recorded, now the numbers are in the tens of cases. And here is the explanation: at the beginning of last week air masses from the subtropics began to arrive in South Korea. In the afternoons the air in Seoul warms up to +15.
Based on this logic, conditions for reducing the number of coronavirus infections may soon form in other countries as well. And besides rising temperatures, spring has begun in the Northern Hemisphere. By May the sunlight will almost double. That means the ultraviolet radiation entering the atmosphere will be more effective at disinfecting the air.
With the arrival of warm days nature will begin to wake up. Human immunity will also increase, we will be happier and thus we will overcome the infection, said molecular genetics expert Dmitry Kvon.
In this situation, however, one cannot rely on the weather alone. The main weapons against the coronavirus are isolating patients and maintaining personal hygiene.
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