Good Morning Britain 's Dr Amir Khan had a stark warning to people planning to head to the beach in this weekend's heat wave.
He was speaking to hosts Adil Ray and Ranvir Singh, who were quizzing him on how dangerous it was to visit the beach.
This came amid the news it is set to be one of the hottest days the UK has ever recorded, and Dr Amir emphasised the importance of social distancing and hand sanitising at the beach as they are set to be crowded.
He revealed a study has known sunlight can kill COVID-19, but only works on surfaces and would not protect us from contracting it from someone via droplets.
"If you're going outside and particularly to packed beaches, you should really maintain that two-metre social distance bubble around you if it's people outside of your household, outside of your bubble," he said.
"It's really difficult to wash your hands on the beach, so take hand sanitiser with you as well.
"There is evidence that strong UV light can kill the virus within 30 minutes, there was a study published in a journal called Protobiology and Protochemistry, that showed strong UV light can actually damage the hard case of the virus and kill it."
He continued: "But that's only on surfaces, it doesn't take into account the main way the virus is spread which is through droplets.
"So if you're standing within two metres of someone and they are sneezing or even talking loudly, they can pass droplets on to you that you inhale in, and no amount of UV light will stop that from happening.
"So you can't rely on sunlight to protect you from the virus, it's really important to say that," he maintained.
*Good Morning Britain airs weekdays on ITV at 6am
