The spread of the novel coronavirus does not appear to be impacted by seasonality, the World Health Organization (WHO) said on Tuesday, warning against false beliefs that summer is safer.
"Season does not seem to be affecting the transmission of this virus," WHO spokeswoman Margaret Harris told reporters in a virtual briefing.
She pointed out that some of the hardest-hit countries are currently in the midst of different season.
While it is summer in the United States, which with nearly 148,000 deaths and close to 4.3 million cases is the hardest-hit country, the second most affected country Brazil, which counts more than 87,000 deaths, is in winter.
And yet, she said, there "seems to be this fixed idea about this virus being seasonal", and that Covid-19 will come in waves.
This is because people are mistakenly viewing the pandemic through "a flu lense, because that is the way the flu behaves."
"What we all need to get our heads around is this is a new virus... and even though it is a respiratory virus and even though respiratory viruses in the past did tend to do these different seasonal waves, this one is behaving differently," Harris said.
Instead of expecting the virus to behave like other viruses that are more familiar, she said people should look at what is actually known about how to stop transmission of Covid-19.
What works, she said, is physical distancing, hand washing, wearing a mask where appropriate, always covering up sneezes and coughs, staying home when experiencing symptoms, the isolation of cases and quarantining of contacts.
"Summer is a problem. This virus likes all weathers, but what it particularly likes is jumping from one person to another when we come in close contact," Harris said.
Worry and action in Germany
The disease control agency in Germany voices "great concern" over rising virus numbers in the country -- in the last seven days it has registered an average of 557 new cases a day, up from around 350 in early June.
German authorities also update their travel advisory, recommending against travel to three regions in northern Spain, all grappling with renewed outbreaks.
UK, Spain debate quarantine
The British government defends its decision to quarantine all travellers arriving from Spain after open criticism from the Spanish prime minister.
Pedro Sanchez had called the move to impose a 14-day quarantine on all those entering Britain from Spain as "unbalanced", insisting parts of his country are safer than the UK.
More than 654,000 deaths
The pandemic has killed more than 654,477 people worldwide since it surfaced in China late last year, with more than 16.5 million people infected, according to an AFP tally at 8pm based on official sources.
The United States has the most deaths with 148,056, followed by Brazil with 87,618, Britain with 45,759, Mexico 44,022 and Italy with 35,112.
Iran reports 235 new deaths from the virus, a record toll for a single day in the Middle East's hardest-hit country.
Cruises and masks in Greece
Greece will reopen six of its ports, including Piraeus in Athens, to cruise ships at the weekend, the tourism minister says.
But the government also says it is making masks compulsory again in shops and public services in response to a recent rise in infections.
