Come Winter And COVID-19 May Spread, Say Researchers At IIT Bhubaneswar & AIIMS

Bhubaneswar: Going by the study of a team from researchers at IIT Bhubaneswar and AIIMS, peak monsoon and winter may lead to increased transmission of COVID-19 in the country.

The study claims that the transmission rate of COVID-19 decreases with the rise in temperature reported The New Indian Express (TNIE).

According to the researchers, monsoon rainfall and cooling of the atmosphere and progression towards winter may environmentally favor coronavirus transmission in the country, the report added.

The research report, ‘The Covid-19 spread in India and its dependence on temperature and relative humidity’ is available on the website of Preprints but has not been peer-reviewed yet.

The study was conducted using a simple statistical method taking into account the pattern and number of COVID-19 cases across all 28 states from April to June, TNIE reported.

Here is how it works. Surface air temperature is closely related to COVID-19 and its spread. “Low temperature and high humidity appear to favor the spread of the disease. An increase in temperature by one degree leads to a 0.99 % decrease in the number of COVID-19 cases and increases the doubling time by 1.13 days,” the researchers were quoted as saying by TNIE.

The researchers insisted that the increase in relative humidity tends to decrease the growth rate of disease and its doubling time by 1.18 days. “Policymakers must take targeted decisions that may also include environmental information to slow the spread,” V Vinoj, assistant professor at School of Earth, Ocean and Climate Science at IIT Bhubaneswar, who has led the research told TNIE.

However, everything boils down to the basics: Wearing masks, physical distancing, and improved hand hygiene. These three ground rules will ultimately stop transmission, said the researcher.

“More research needs to be done as other factors like enforcement of physical distancing, masking and hand hygiene are also responsible for the transmission of the virus,” the researcher was quoted as saying in TNIE.