Students of grade 9 learn how to properly wear a face mask at Shenzhen Foreign Languages School in Shenzhen, south China's Guangdong Province, April 27, 2020. (Xinhua/Liang Xu)
A Chinese expert said on Monday that COVID-19 is unlikely to go away in summer, noting that the temperature is not hot enough to lead to a significant reduction in COVID-19 cases.
The novel coronavirus can be killed at 56 degrees Celsius after 30 minutes, but the temperature cannot reach that high in summer, said Wang Guiqiang, an expert from Peking University First Hospital, at a press conference.
According to the current global epidemic situation, even in summer, the probability of a significant reduction in COVID-19 cases is not high, he noted.
Wang said experts so far cannot rule out the possibility that COVID-19 is something the world is going to be managing for a long time. It is also possible that it has another outbreak in autumn or winter in places where people gather with no proper air circulation.
He urged to integrate international efforts in containing COVID-19, noting that the world can only win the battle against the virus with no countries left behind.