Frequently it is discussed that COVID-19 does not survive at higher environmental temperatures, but I miss any meaningful research in this regard.
Sadly there is no clear evidence on this topic. The Middle East Respiratory Syndrome is a similar clinical syndrome to Covid-19. It is caused by MERS CoV which is a coronavirus similar to SARS-CoV-2. It is endemic is Saudi Arabia. Whilst there is some seasonal variation of MERS, the extreme heat of the Saudi summers have not eradicated MERS CoV.
I do agree with your observation, Sir. As per the Johns Hopkins online database, I too observed that the colder states in USA have less cases of infection and lower death rate. So further studies should be fone to say it concretely that the covid 19 infection would not survive in hot climate. Just an oipinion of mine.
The survival of the virus outside the host certainly depends on the environmental temperature; this is not a peculiarity of COVID-19, but a general theme. This is quite irrelevant as the transmission of the virus typically occurs after a close contact between the infected and to-be-infected person, and so the exposure of the virus to the environmental temperature can be as short in duration as a fraction of a second, too short to affect the ability of the virus to infect the new host.
I don't know about any published study but if we observe the spread of the virus around the world, it seems that temperature is not a critical parameter affecting its survival, temperature in middle east is relatively high while in Sweden or Canada we have the opposite case, and yet the number of cases is increasing at almost the same rate in all these countries. I have an observation that the spread of the virus in north africa is very limited (Tunisia have only around 1000 cases in 5 months), as many studies are now suggesting, I think the age is the main factor limiting the spread of the virus, more young people you have give you less risk...
Well, from a knowledge of the biology of the virus, we all know it's an enveloped virus made of lipid and phospholipids in the cellular membrane. While there is no yet any wet lab evidence to substantiate the potential inverse relation between the virus survival and increased atmospheric temperature, we recently made our opinion on the correlation between the virus biology and its epidemiology entitled "A close look at the biology of SARS-CoV-2, and the potential influence of weather conditions and seasons on COVID-19 case spread" currently accepted to be put forward for public access. We believe as a group of scientists and an epidemiologist that biochemical nature (biology) of the virus could definitely render the virus susceptible to high temperature for quite a long time. Based on the evidence of a study conducted on the original SARS with an inverse correlation, in addition to seasonal emergence of some viruses in what we know as "cold viruses"- which are all enveloped viruses together with SARS-CoV-2 in that group, plausibility cannot be ignored but shall come to reality after some seasonal changes- on our conclusion.
Explained in this article; Article A close look at the biology of SARS-CoV-2, and the potential...
As seen widely in Africa's low cases, I believe the weather's hotness in the continent played a critical part.
