Will summer kill off coronavirus? 'Baseless', says ICMR

Contrary to popular belief, there is no scientific basis to say that coronavirus vanishes with higher temperatures, according to the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR), the apex body in India for the formulation, coordination and promotion of biomedical research.

Speaking to IANS, Dr Ganga Ketkar of ICMR said: "So far, there is no scientific basis to say coronavirus vanishes with high temperature. It has not yet seen seasons. It came into existence around December. And now, it`s March. So it`s really impossible to say whether temperature helps the virus go away or not."

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While the assumption of a relationship between high temperature and coronavirus subsiding seems to have gathered steam from its comparison with flu, recently US President Donald Trump backing this theory gave it wider believability. Trump said, "The heat, generally speaking, kills this kind of virus."

But now with India`s foremost research body making it clear that the assumption is baseless, Indians will have to bank on government prescribed social distancing measures and hygiene advisories to beat the coronascare, rather than on advancing summer.

So far in India, 114 people have tested positive for the deadly virus.