Influence of air pollution and meteorological factors on the spread of COVID-19 in the Bangkok Metropolitan Region and air quality during the outbreak

Abstract

This study investigated the effects of weather conditions, air pollutants, and the air quality index (AQI) on daily cases of COVID-19 in the Bangkok Metropolitan Region (BMR). In this research, we collected data from January 1 to March 30, 2020 (90 days). This study used secondary data of meteorological and air pollutant parameters obtained from the Pollution Control Department of the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment as well as daily confirmed COVID-19 case data in the BMR obtained from the official webpage of the Department of Disease Control, Ministry of Public Health, Thailand. We employed descriptive statistics, and Spearman and Kendall rank correlation tests were used to investigate the associations of weather variables, air pollutants, AQI with daily confirmed COVID-19 cases. Our findings indicate that CO, NO2, SO2, O3 PM10, PM2.5, AQI have a significantly negative association with daily confirmed COVID-19 cases in the BMR, whereas meteorological parameters such as temperature, relative humidity (RH), absolute humidity (AH) and wind speed (WS) showed significant positive associations with daily confirmed COVID-19 cases in the BMR. Our study is a useful supplement to encourage regulatory bodies to promote environmental strategies, as air pollution regulation could be a sustainable policy for mitigating the harmful effects of air pollutants. Furthermore, this study provides new insights into the relationship between daily meteorological factors, AQI, and air pollutants and daily confirmed COVID-19 cases in the BMR. These data may provide useful information to the public health authorities and decision makers in Thailand, as well as to the World Health Organization (WHO), in order to set proper strategic aimed at reducing the impact of the COVID-19. Future studies concerning SARS-CoV-2 and other viruses should investigate the possibility of infectious droplet dispersion in indoor and outdoor air during and after the epidemic outbreak.