Impact and Correlation of Air Quality and Climate Variables with COVID-19 Morbidity and Mortality in Dhaka, Bangladesh

  1. Md Riad Sarkar Pavel
  2. Abdus Salam
  3. Mahbuba Yesmin
  4. Nazmul Ahsan
  5. Shahid Uz Zaman
  6. Farah Jeba

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Abstract

The COVID-19 pandemic unexpectedly stopped the steady life and enhanced environmental quality. To apprehend the transmission of COVID-19 and the improvement of air quality, we have studied air quality indicators (PM 2.5 , PM 10 , AQI, and NO 2 ), CO 2 emission, and climate variables (temperature, relative humidity, rainfall, and wind velocity) in the extremely polluted and densely populated Southeast Asian megacity Dhaka, Bangladesh from March to June 2020. The Kendall and Spearman correlations were chosen to test the connotation of air quality and climate variables with COVID-19 morbidity and mortality. The average concentrations of PM 2.5 , PM 10 , and CO 2 were 65.0 ± 37.9 and 87.1 ± 52.8 µm m -3 , and 427 ± 11.8 ppm, respectively. The average PM 2.5 and PM 10 drastically reduced up to 62% during COVID-19 lockdown in Dhaka comparing with March 2020 (before lockdown). Comparing with the same period in 2019, PM 2.5 reduced up to 33.5%. The average NO 2 concentration was 35.0 µmol m -2 during the lockdown period in April, whereas 175.0 µmol m -2 during March (before lockdown). A significant correlation was observed between COVID-19 cases and air quality indicators. A strong correlation was obtained between climate variables and the total number of COVID-19 morbidity and mortality representing a favorable condition for spreading the virus. Our study will be very expedient for policymakers to establish a mechanism for air pollution mitigation based on scientific substantiation, and also will be an essential reference for the advance research to improve urban air quality and the transmission of the SARS-CoV-2 virus in the tropical nations.

Graphical Abstract

Highlights

  • COVID-19 lockdown drastically reduced PM 2.5 and PM 10 concentrations up to 62%.

  • During lockdown, NO 2 emission abridged up to 80%, CO 2 emission dropped by 2-4%.

  • Climate variables revealed strong correlation with COVID-19 morbidity and mortality.

  • COVID-19 cases and mortality had significant correlation with air quality indicators.

  • Knowledge from enormous improved air quality will be transmitted to the policy execution.

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  1. ScreenIT

    SciScore for 10.1101/2020.09.12.20193086: (What is this?)

    Please note, not all rigor criteria are appropriate for all manuscripts.

    Table 1: Rigor

    Institutional Review Board Statementnot detected.
    Randomizationnot detected.
    Blindingnot detected.
    Power Analysisnot detected.
    Sex as a biological variablenot detected.

    Table 2: Resources

    No key resources detected.

    Results from OddPub: We did not detect open data. We also did not detect open code. Researchers are encouraged to share open data when possible (see Nature blog).

    Results from LimitationRecognizer: An explicit section about the limitations of the techniques employed in this study was not found. We encourage authors to address study limitations.

    Results from TrialIdentifier: No clinical trial numbers were referenced.

    Results from Barzooka: We found bar graphs of continuous data. We recommend replacing bar graphs with more informative graphics, as many different datasets can lead to the same bar graph. The actual data may suggest different conclusions from the summary statistics. For more information, please see Weissgerber et al (2015).

    Results from JetFighter: We did not find any issues relating to colormaps.

    Results from rtransparent:
    • Thank you for including a conflict of interest statement. Authors are encouraged to include this statement when submitting to a journal.
    • Thank you for including a funding statement. Authors are encouraged to include this statement when submitting to a journal.
    • No protocol registration statement was detected.

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  2. Version published to 10.1101/2020.09.12.20193086 on medRxiv
  3. Version published to 10.23880/act-16000197