A researcher from the U.S claims that coronavirus dies faster when it is exposed to sunlight through a study that is not yet made public and awaits external evaluation. The science and technology adviser to the Department of Homeland Security secretary, William Bryan says that, “The virus dies quickest in the presence of direct sunlight.”
Researchers say that ultraviolet rays potently affect the pathogen and hope that the coronavirus may ease over summer. The most striking perception of the researchers until now is the strong effect of sunlight that seems to have on killing the virus.
Read more- FDA Issues an Emergency Authorization to a Blood Purification Device for Treating COVID-19 Patients
Bryan says that they have also seen a comparable impact with both temperature and humidity, where increasing the humidity and temperature or both are commonly less good for the viral infection.
But it is hard for researchers to remark on how powerful its methodology was because the paper itself is not published yet.
It has been realized that ultraviolet light has a disinfecting effect because the radiation harms the genetic material of the virus and its capacity to duplicate. But also in some warm countries like Malaysia, Thailand, and Singapore, COVID-19 is proven lethal. Coronavirus is not heat-resistant and a rise in temperature kills it. But a question arises, what the intensity and wavelength of UV light kill the COVID-19.
The chair of biological sciences at Texas A&M University-Texarkana, Benjamin Neuman says,
“It would be good to know how the test was done, and how the results were measured. Not that it would be done badly, just that there are several different ways to count viruses, depending on what aspect you are interested in studying.”
Bryan has also shared significant findings of the trial that was done at the National Biodefense Analysis and Countermeasures Center in Maryland.
It indicates that the half-life of the virus is the time taken for it to reduce to a large portion of its sum that was18 hours when the temperature was 70 to 75 degrees Fahrenheit or 21 to 24 degrees Celsius with 20 % humidity on a non-permeable surface.
However, when humidity rose to eighty percent, the half-life dropped to six hours and when the humidity was higher in the presence of solar light, the half-life was reduced to two minutes.
At the point when the viral infection was aerosolized, the half-life was reduced to one hour and the temperature was 70 to 75 degrees with 20 % humidity. While dropped to only one and a half minutes in the presence of sunlight.
Bryan concluded that summer months “will create an environment (where) transmission can be decreased.”
The warm temperature can kill a virus because viruses can’t live alive in hotter surfaces and degraded when a warm environment is provided to them.
Also, Bryan warned that it is irresponsible behavior to think that summer-like conditions can eliminate the virus and social distancing rules will be lifted. And says,
“It would be irresponsible for us to say that we feel that the summer is just going to totally kill the virus and then if it’s a free-for-all and that people ignore those guides,”
Harris says, “I’m sorry but we cannot hope that summer is going to have the effect that many people hope it will,”
Previous researches provide no reliable evidence about the effect of higher humidity and warmer temperature in decreasing the spread of the virus. US health authorities are sure that if COVID-19 cases decrease in summer months, these will increase again in the winter season.