What experts think about the role of monsoon in curbing the spread of coronavirus
When COVID-19 was still emerging in India, it was expected that the high temperature during the summer season would help in curbing the spread of coronavirus. But nothing happened. Now that we are moving towards monsoon season soon, people have again started talking about the role of monsoon in curbing the spread of novel coronavirus.
COVID-19 is a new infection whose behaviour is still not fully-known to doctors, researchers and scientists. So we will try to understand the effect of the rainy season with the context of other similar viruses.
Coronavirus is being compared to influenza, which, like novel coronavirus, is a respiratory disease. However, there are many differences in the way COVID-19 and influenza affect the human body.
Read more: Could there be a second wave of COVID-19?
What do Doctors say?
Dr Marc- Alain Widdowson believes that in the cases of influenza and other respiratory diseases, it has not been understood so far, what drives the seasonal behaviour of infections. Dr Widdowson is a Director of the Institute of Tropical Medicine, Antwerp, Belgium and has earlier worked for American Centre for Disease Control.
While talking to a daily, Dr Widdowson said that it is very difficult to predict the flu season as there is no single factor like rainfall, temperature or even staying indoors that can be said to have a decisive impact. Other factors like Vitamin D levels and Sunlight are also responsible for how these diseases spread. Also, it is not clear how much role surfaces play in the contamination of diseases in comparison to human touch or through the air. A lot of people believe that only little contamination happens through surfaces. And the rainy season is not going to change the indoor surface so, it is difficult to predict the role of monsoon season in the curb of COVID-19.
Former Deputy Director of National Institute of Virology, Dr M S Chadha said that it could take several years to know if monsoon has any impact on the global pandemic COVID-19.
Rain can actually be helpful
Spitting on streets is very common in India, which is one of the mediums of transmission of COVID-19 in India. But during the rainy season, the spitting will be diluted from the streets. Also, people don’t spend a lot of time outside during the rainy season, which decreases the chances of infection of COVID-19.
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