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That the coronavirus pandemic will not subside overnight is, however, clear. Chinese scientists, however, warn that covid-19 will become a seasonal matter, just as is the case with ordinary influenza.
The SARS and MERS viruses, which after their rampage completely disappeared, were, according to Chinese experts, a completely different case.
The new type of coronavirus will most likely keep returning, just like the flu. This is due to its ability to survive in the bodies of asymptomatic people, who are individuals who only transmit the virus but do not experience any symptoms themselves.
Won’t we get rid of the coronavirus?
“It is very likely to be an epidemic that will accompany humanity for a long time, become seasonal and settle in human bodies,” Jin Qi, director of the Institute of Pathogenic Biology at the Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences, told reporters on Monday. Asymptomatic people, who do not even know they are infected and of whom there may be several million in the population, are precisely the most important for the virus’s survival.
The epidemiologist previously warned people not to believe speculation about the influence of warm weather on the disappearance of the coronavirus. According to him, heat has no effect on the coronavirus.
Heat won’t help much
“When we look at how it was in Singapore or Iran, where the climate is significantly warmer, yet the disease is developing there, I do not rely on the warmer season to significantly limit it,” he said in an interview already at the beginning of March.
“The virus is sensitive to heat, but only if exposed to a temperature of 56 degrees Celsius for more than 30 minutes, and such heat will never occur,” confirms this view Wang Kuej-chiang, head of the infectious diseases department of the university hospital of Peking University. Although the coronavirus is perceived as a stronger flu, Prymula points out that age of patients is decisive for covid-19.
“As far as the coronavirus is concerned, the predilection risk is for the 65+ categories and especially 75+,” the epidemiologist said.
