Many of the infectious diseases are more common during specific seasons. For example, Influenza does better in winter because of the factors such as humidity, temperature, or changes in vitamin D and diet levels. Different diseases have different patterns. Different diseases have different patterned occurrences. Some peak in early or late winter and some peak in spring, summer, or fall. Based on latitude certain diseases have different seasonal peaks. And others have almost no seasonal period. So when SARS-CoV-2 infection began to spread all over the world in early summer, scientists were hopeful that COVID-19 like many of the seasonal diseases.
On 28th July, Dr. Margaret Harris, spokesperson of the World Health Organisation (WHO) confirmed this by a short video on twitter. She deliberately explained that COVID-19 is not a seasonal infection or disease like many other respiratory diseases. She said,” The season does not seem to be affecting the transmission of this virus currently. What is affecting the transmission is mass gatherings, it’s people coming together, and people, not social distancing, not taking the precautions to ensure they are not in close contact.” Further, she elaborates that the largest outbreak “with the most severe, the highest numbers” remained in the United States, where it is mid-summer. Despite being an equatorial region, Brazil had also seen high infection rates. She also noted that in the global south high COVID-19 infection rates and low influenza rates were recorded. This would maybe mean that a later flu season might occur in the southern hemisphere.
Dr. Harris also pushed back on the perception that a respiratory illness might come and go in several waves. “It’s going to be one big wave”, she said. “It’s going to go up and down a bit…the best thing is to flatten it and turn it into just something that is lapping at your feet. But at the moment, first, second, the third wave, these things don’t really make sense and we’re not really defining it that way.” She also urged all the countries to continuously test people because testing is essential in finding out where the outbreak is. All the countries should make testing wide and available and easy accessibility.
No one knows that the upcoming spring season is going to change the effects of COVID-19 or not. But since COVID-19 is not a seasonal disease, it is best to stick to preventive measure s such as social distancing and avoiding public gatherings to slow down the spread of transmission.
