'Coronavirus to disappear in summer': No evidence to support such claim, says WHO

New Delhi : There are no evidence right now which could suggest that the deadly coronavirus will disappear in the summer, a senior expert with the World Health Organisation (WHO) said on Friday (March 6). He asked people to stay protected from the disease.

"We do not know yet what the activity or behaviour of the virus will be in different climatic conditions," Dr Michael Ryan, executive director of the WHO Health Emergencies Programme, told a daily briefing, warning against the assumption that the virus would just disappear on its own in the summertime like influenza.

"We have to assume the virus will continue to have the capacity to spread," he said.

Meanwhile, he claimed that the disease can emerge anywhere in the world like Ebola in Africa. All we need is to stay prepared and not believe in rumours.

He called on countries and societies to avoid "blame culture" and to do all the things needed to save lives.

Currently, India has registered 34 positive cases of coronavirus and China has reported more than 1,00,000 cases with over 3000 deaths.