No proof that weather will impact coronavirus survival, says Chinese expert

Mainland China saw an overall drop in new infections on Sunday but major cities such as Beijing and Shanghai continued to wrestle with – and tighten restriction against -- cases involving infected travelers arriving from abroad.

The impact of weather on coronavirus infection rates has not been confirmed, a frontline medical expert stationed in Wuhan said on Monday.

With the pandemic raging outside China, imported cases are a concern but there is unlikely to be a second wave of the epidemic, which has killed 3213 and sickened as many as 80860 persons in Chin (AFP)

Cao Wei, deputy director of the department of infectious diseases at the prestigious Peking Union Medical College hospital added the coronavirus outbreak in China has almost “seen its end” but it will at least take a month to say to make a final judgement on the epidemic situation.

With the pandemic raging outside China, imported cases are a concern but there is unlikely to be a second wave of the epidemic, which has killed 3213 and sickened as many as 80860 persons in China, she added.

She added that the number of newly reported cases of Covid-19 in the country, including imported ones, might stay at a relatively low level, but it would last for a certain period of time as the imported cases have become an important source of the disease.

“We all know that the status of pandemic has been declared by the double actual a few days ago, which means that the situation of the epidemic globally will not be solely dependent on the situations in China or any other single area or countries in the world,” Cao said.

“Currently, after three months fights, the outbreak in China, which started last from last year’s December, has almost seen its end. I think we will still wait for another month to see and make the final judgment,” Cao said.

When asked whether the weather getting warmer would reduce the number of infections, Cao said climatic factor in curbing COVID-19 has not been confirmed yet.

“The peak of the outbreak in Wuhan came to an end. However, we should be observant to sporadic cases in the community, as well as the imported cases from other countries,” Du Bin professor and director of Medical ICU at the Peking Union Medical College Hospital said at the same press conference.

The interaction between the doctors in Wuhan and journalists in Beijing took place via a live videolink.

“Diagnosis and isolation of symptomatic cases and close contacts of confirmed patients are the predominant tasks in virus prevention that ultimately helped mitigate the outbreak in Wuhan,” Du added.

Mainland China saw an overall drop in new infections on Sunday but major cities such as Beijing and Shanghai continued to wrestle with – and tighten restriction against -- cases involving infected travelers arriving from abroad.