Contrary to the general perception, temperature and humidity do not play a significant role in coronavirus spread, scientists have said, explaining that whether it’s hot or cold outside, the transmission of Covid-19 from one person to the next depends almost entirely on human behaviour.
They said that taking trips and spending time away from home were the top two contributing factors to Covid-19 growth, with a relative importance of about 34 per cent and 26 per cent respectively.
The next two important factors were population and urban density, with a relative importance of about 23% and 13% respectively.
The study is published in the International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health.
Earlier, at the onset of the coronavirus pandemic, it was thought that hot summer temperatures could reduce its spread.
Then later, in India which is now witnessing winter season, it was predicted that cold would result into pike of the Covid-19 cases.
However, research led by The University of Texas at Austin in their new study found that temperature and humidity do not play a significant role in coronavirus spread.
“The effect of weather is low and other features such as mobility have more impact than weather,” said Dev Niyogi, a professor at UT Austin’s Jackson School of Geosciences and Cockrell School of Engineering who led the research. “In terms of relative importance, weather is one of the last parameters.”
Co-authors are Sajad Jamshidi, a research assistant at Purdue University, and Maryam Baniasad, a doctoral candidate at Ohio State University.