Preprint Article Version 3 Preserved in Portico This version is not peer-reviewed

Influence of Temperature on the Global Spread of COVID-19

Version 1 : Received: 25 March 2020 / Approved: 25 March 2020 / Online: 25 March 2020 (04:00:09 CET)
Version 2 : Received: 9 April 2020 / Approved: 9 April 2020 / Online: 9 April 2020 (16:39:04 CEST)
Version 3 : Received: 21 June 2020 / Approved: 21 June 2020 / Online: 21 June 2020 (16:19:26 CEST)

A peer-reviewed article of this Preprint also exists.

Roy, I. The role of temperature on the global spread of COVID-19 and urgent solutions. Int. J. Environ. Sci. Technol. (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s13762-020-02991-8 Roy, I. The role of temperature on the global spread of COVID-19 and urgent solutions. Int. J. Environ. Sci. Technol. (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s13762-020-02991-8

Abstract

This article investigated whether the atmospheric temperature had any role in the spread and vulnerability to COVID-19 worldwide and how that knowledge can be utilized to contain the fast-spreading disease. It highlighted that temperature was an important factor in transmitting the virus, and a moderately cool environment was the most favourable state for its susceptibility. In fact, the risk from the virus is reduced significantly in high temperature environment. Warm countries and places were likely to be less vulnerable. We identified various degrees of vulnerability based on temperature and specified countries for March and April. The maximum reported case, as well as death, was noted when the temperature was in the range of around 275°K (2°C) to 290°K (17°C). Countries like the USA, UK, Italy and Spain belonged to this category. The vulnerability was moderate when the temperature was less than around 275°K (2°C) and countries in that category were Russia, parts of Canada and few Scandinavian countries. For temperature 300°K (27°C) and above, a significantly lesser degree of vulnerability was noted. Countries from SAARC, South East Asia, the African continent and Australia fell in that category. In fact, when the temperature was more than 305°K (32°C), there was a unusually low number of reported cases and deaths. For warm countries, further analyses on the degree of vulnerability were conducted for the group of countries from SAARC and South East Asia and individual countries were compared. We also showed countries can switch from one vulnerability state to another based on the variability of temperature. We provided maps of temperature to identify countries of different vulnerability states in different months of the year. That influence of temperature on the virus and previous results of clinical trials with similar viruses gave us a useful insight that regulating the level of temperature can provide remarkable results to arrest and stop the outbreak. Based on that knowledge, some urgent solutions are proposed, which are practically without side effects and very cost-effective too.

Keywords

COVID-19; coronavirus; temperature; solutions

Subject

Environmental and Earth Sciences, Environmental Science

Comments (1)

Comment 1
Received: 21 June 2020
Commenter: Indrani Roy
Commenter's Conflict of Interests: Author
Comment: This version is in the form of a paper and added more analyses.
+ Respond to this comment

We encourage comments and feedback from a broad range of readers. See criteria for comments and our Diversity statement.

Leave a public comment
Send a private comment to the author(s)
* All users must log in before leaving a comment
Views 0
Downloads 0
Comments 1
Metrics 0


×
Alerts
Notify me about updates to this article or when a peer-reviewed version is published.
We use cookies on our website to ensure you get the best experience.
Read more about our cookies here.