Abstract
Several studies have examined the transmission dynamics of the novel COVID-19 disease in different parts of the world. Some have reported relationships with various environmental variables, suggesting that spread of the disease is enhanced in colder and drier climates. However, evidence is still scarce and mostly limited to a few countries, particularly from Asia. We examined the potential role of multiple environmental variables in COVID-19 infection rate [measured as mean relative infection rate = (number of infected inhabitants per week / total population) × 100.000) from February 23 to August 16, 2020 across 360 cities of Chile. Chile has a large climatic gradient (≈ 40º of latitude, ≈ 4000 m of altitude and 5 climatic zones, from desert to tundra), but all cities share their social behaviour patterns and regulations. Our results indicated that COVID-19 transmission in Chile was mostly related to three main climatic factors (minimum temperature, atmospheric pressure and relative humidity). Transmission was greater in colder and drier cities and when atmospheric pressure was lower. The results of this study support some previous findings about the main climatic determinants of COVID-19 transmission, which may be useful for decision-making and management of the disease.
Highlights
Several studies have examined the transmission dynamics of the novel COVID-19 disease in different parts of the world
On the last day of 2019, a viral outbreak of unknown origin was detected in a seafood market in Wuhan City, Hubei Province, C hina[1]. This virus, later named severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2; Coronaviridae) and responsible for the clinical disease known as COVID-19, has spread around the globe and declared a pandemic by the World Health Organization (WHO) on March 12, 2020
Despite the rapid response of the scientific community to understand the transmission of COVID-19, the role that environmental variables play in the disease dynamics remains an open question that requires further evidence across the world
Summary
Several studies have examined the transmission dynamics of the novel COVID-19 disease in different parts of the world. On the last day of 2019, a viral outbreak of unknown origin was detected in a seafood market in Wuhan City, Hubei Province, C hina[1] This virus, later named severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2; Coronaviridae) and responsible for the clinical disease known as COVID-19, has spread around the globe and declared a pandemic by the World Health Organization (WHO) on March 12, 2020. The analysis of temporal and spatial relationships of these factors with COVID-19 transmission rate Most of these studies have reported a negative relationship between transmission rate and several proxies of temperature and humidity, suggesting that the disease spread is enhanced in colder and drier c limates[5,6,7,8,9].Other environmental variables have received less attention and results have been inconclusive or differed among countries. We aim to provide information about COVID-19 transmission across a wide range of environmental variation within a single country that may help understanding the dynamics of this disease
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