Impact of Environmental Indicators on the COVID-19 Pandemic in Delhi, India.

Sherry Mangla,Mohd Arshad,Ubydul Haque,Ashok Kumar Pathak,Doyel Ghosh,Prafulla Kumar Sahoo,Vinod Kumar Garg

doi:10.3390/pathogens10081003

Abstract

Currently, there is a massive debate on whether meteorological and air quality parameters play a crucial role in the transmission of COVID-19 across the globe. With this background, this study aims to evaluate the impact of air pollutants (PM2.5, PM10, CO, NO, NO2, and O3) and meteorological parameters (temperature, humidity, wind speed, and rainfall) on the spread and mortality due to the COVID-19 outbreak in Delhi from 14 Mar 2020 to 3 May 2021. The Spearman’s rank correlation method employed on secondary data shows a significant correlation between the COVID-19 incidences and the PM2.5, PM10, CO, NO, NO2, and O3 concentrations. Amongst the four meteorological parameters, temperature is strongly correlated with COVID-19 infections and deaths during the three phases, i.e., pre-lockdown (14 March 2020 to 24 March 2020) (r = 0.79), lockdown (25 March 2020 to 31 May 2020) (r = 0.87), and unlock (1 June 2020 to 3 May 2021) (r = −0.75), explaining the variability of about 20–30% in the lockdown period and 18–19% in the unlock period. NO2 explained the maximum variability of 10% and 7% in the total confirmed cases and deaths among the air pollutants, respectively. A generalized linear model could explain 80% and 71% of the variability in confirmed cases and deaths during the lockdown and 82% and 81% variability in the unlock phase, respectively. These findings suggest that these factors may contribute to the transmission of the COVID-19 and its associated deaths. The study results would enhance the ongoing research related to the influence of environmental factors. They would be helpful for policymakers in managing the outbreak of COVID-19 in Delhi, India.

Highlights

The present study favors the argument that the COVID-19 lockdown has significantly helped clean the air environment
The concentration of O3 increased during the lockdown, which is possible because it was enforced during the warmer months in Delhi i.e., April and May
This research finds that increasing temperature and decreasing humidity may increase daily new infections and deaths due to the coronavirus

Summary

Introduction

The outbreak of the novel coronavirus (COVID-19), associated with Severe Acute. Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), began in December 2019 in Wuhan, China. The disease has been affirmed to have human-to-human transmissibility [1], which elevated colossal attention in China and worldwide [2]. Due to its devastating effects worldwide, COVID-19 was declared a global pandemic by the World Health Organization [3].

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