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Coronavirus pandemic

Coronavirus becomes avirulent when air temperature is above 30 Celsius — sanitary watchdog

Low humidity and sunrays lead to the destruction of the virus, according to the watchdog

© AP Photo/Silvia Izquierdo

MOSCOW, May 8. /TASS/. The novel coronavirus becomes avirulent, or loses its capacity to cause the disease, when air temperatures are higher than 30 degrees Celsius above zero, Russia’s sanitary watchdog said on Friday.

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Moscow’s coronavirus death toll rises to 956

"The novel SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus loses its capacity to cause the disease practically completely when air temperatures are 30 degrees or higher. Low humidity and sunrays destroy the virus," it told the government’s portal on the coronavirus situation.

According to the watchdog, the virus dies at a temperature of 70 degrees above zero.

In late December 2019, Chinese officials notified the World Health Organization (WHO) about the outbreak of a previously unknown pneumonia in the city of Wuhan, in central China. Since then, cases of the novel coronavirus — named COVID-19 by the WHO — have been reported in every corner of the globe, including Russia.

On March 11, 2020, the WHO declared the coronavirus outbreak a pandemic. According to the latest statistics, over 3,900,000 people have been infected worldwide and more than 270,000 deaths have been reported. In addition, so far, over 1,344,000 individuals have recovered from the illness across the globe.

To date, a total of 187,859 coronavirus cases have been confirmed in Russia, with 26,608 patients having recovered from the virus. Russia’s latest data indicates 1,723 fatalities nationwide. Earlier, the Russian government set up an Internet hotline to keep the public updated on the coronavirus situation.

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