MP claims summer heat to halt coronavirus

TDT | Manama

A Bahraini MP has claimed that the onset of summer in the Kingdom will help arrest the march of the novel coronavirus that has claimed over 4,700 lives worldwide and infected over 129,140 people.

Claiming that “summer heat could combat coronavirus”, the MP has also asked the education ministry here to reopen schools here only by June. MP Dr Masoumah Abdul Rahim said: “Schooling should be paused until the end of May and resume when summer intensifies in June.”

As of now, in Bahrain, the Education Ministry has suspended the normal functioning of all higher educational institutions as well as kindergartens until 29 March 2020.

MP Dr Masoumah Abdul Rahim, however, warned the ministry not to reopen school earlier than June as the virus is “still a problem everywhere in the world.” “The virus which transmits easily now may get eliminated by June which will be an appropriate time to return to school,” the MP added.

What do the experts say?

However, experts, in general, view that the spread of virus-based respiratory illnesses does tend to reduce with the rise in temperatures during summer. They say that even though cases of flu are not usually common in summer, there is no evidence or study to suggest that high temperate will kill coronavirus.

Reports, citing doctors and scientists from across the world, say that even though viruses are not expected to survive in higher temperatures, it is not pragmatic to follow such an assumption as there is still a lot to know about COVID-19 spread.

At this point, the general consensus among experts is that COVID-19 could be transmitted less rapidly in summer, but lacks scientific data to claim any connection between COVID-19 and the heat.

Another rejected earlier

Dr Masoumah Abdul Rahim proposal also follows the parliament rejecting a similar proposal to cancel the second term of the school year citing coronavirus scare. Earlier, MPs Ahmed Al-Salloum, Hamad Al-Kooheji and Zainab Abdel-Amir urged to cancel the second term by carrying forward the results of first term exams.

Parliament, however, rejected the proposal with 18 MPs voting against the move and 16 MPs voting in favour. Three MPs remained neutral. Parliament said that such a move would result only in bringing a long hiatus to academic terms and that not all students have access to high-speed internet to follow their classes online.

Schools in Bahrain were closed in the past few weeks in a bid to arrest the spread of the coronavirus epidemic. After initially closing for two weeks, the Ministry later announced, that functioning of all higher educational institutions and kindergartens will be suspended for an additional two weeks, until 29 March 2020.