Sunlight, warmer temperatures, humidity kills COVID-19: Research
Ever since the coronavirus was declared as a global pandemic by the World Health Organisation (WHO), there have been speculations that the sunlight kills COVID-19. Meanwhile, the US Department of Homeland Security's most advanced biocontainment lab has come up with the latest research that the warmer temperatures and humid weather significantly damage the virus, measured in terms of the virus' half-life or the time it takes to cut its potency in half.
The coronavirus in the US has killed around 50,000 people and diagnosed more than 860,000 to date. The research over the effect of temperature and humidity has been gaining traction for weeks. It is for the first time the US government has put an official stamp on the initial results of temperature tests on coronavirus.
Bill Bryan, chief of the science and technology directorate at the US Department of Homeland Security, said that "Our most striking observation is the powerful effect that solar light appears to have on killing the coronavirus, both on surfaces and in the air."
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He added that "We have seen a similar effect with both temperature and humidity. The increase in temperature and humidity or both is less favourable to the virus."
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According to Bryan, the half-life of the virus is about an hour in a room at 70-75F temperature with 20 percent humidity. "However, you get outside and it cuts down to a minute and a half, very significant difference when it gets hit with UV rays," he added. Bryan also said that the testing was done at DHS's advanced biocontainment lab in Maryland, outside the national capital.
-PTC News
