A team of French scientists assert the COVID-19 novel coronavirus has to be exposed to temperatures almost at the boiling point of water to kill the virus and ensure no functioning virions remain.
Previous theories about warmer weather kicking the novel coronavirus to the curb have been further discredited after the Saturday publication of the French research paper “Evaluation of heating and chemical protocols for inactivating SARS-CoV-2” on bioRxiv.
This 60-degree, 60-minute rule has been historically used in lab settings to suppress fatal viruses, such as Ebola, according to the South China Morning Post.
However, when the virus was exposed to a temperature of 92 degrees Celsius for only 15 minutes, it was rendered completely inactive. While the 60-degree heating could result in a deactivation of a sample with a low viral load, the 92-degree test proved more effective.
“The results presented in this study should help to choose the best suited protocol for inactivation in order to prevent exposure of laboratory personnel in charge of direct and indirect detection of Sars-CoV-2 for diagnostic purpose,” the authors detailed.
Just last week, the National Academies of Sciences published a report directed to the White House that explained the summer’s warmer temperatures would have little impact on the spread of the novel coronavirus in the US – the world’s leading country in COVID-19 cases and deaths.
“However, given the lack of host immunity globally, this reduction in transmission efficiency may not lead to a significant reduction in disease spread.”
Researchers also highlighted that this “evidence of seasonality” is also not found in other, similar respiratory illnesses, such as severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) and Middle East respiratory syndrome (MERS).
Sourse: sputniknews.com
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