Coronavirus will fade away by June if countries take urgent action, China Covid-19 adviser predicts

The deadly outbreak may be over by the start of summer, provided that all countries mobilize themselves against the pandemic, said Chinese government adviser in charge of tackling the coronavirus.

Zhong Nanshan, Chinese coronavirus adviser and the epidemiologist who discovered Severe Acute respiratory Syndrome (SARS) in 2003, made the prediction while speaking to journalists on Thursday. He noted, however, that the breakthrough is heavily dependent on how World Health Organization's (WHO) members are dealing with the crisis.

Some countries still don't take the situation very seriously and fail to aggressively contain the Covid-19, Zhong said. In this case, the epidemic might be prolonged even despite the summer heat that makes viral stains relatively inactive, the doctor warned.

His remarks come shortly after China’s National Health Commission (NHC) reported a decline in new Covid-19 cases across the mainland. "Broadly speaking, the peak of the epidemic has passed for China," said Mi Feng, a spokesman for the National Health Commission. "The increase of new cases is falling."

As of Wednesday, the NHC recorded 15 new cases, about half as many as Tuesday’s figure.

China has been leading a swift response to the disease, locking down whole provinces, canceling public events and even postponing key sessions of parliament.

To contain Covid-19, Beijing dispatched around 42,000 medics who flocked to Hubei province – the epicenter of the epidemic – from all across the country. Academics, leading infectionists, and intensive-care specialists were all called in.

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