Ankit Gupta, H. Bherwani, S. Gautam, S. Anjum, Kavya Musugu, Narendra Kumar, A. Anshul, Rakesh Kumar
Environment, Development and Sustainability, 2020
The present work estimates the increased risk of coronavirus disease (COVID-19) caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 by establishing the linkage between the mortality rate in the infected cases and the air pollution, specifically Particulate Matters (PM) with aerodynamic diameters ≤ 10 µm and ≤ 2.5 µm. Data related to nine Asian cities are analyzed using statistical approaches, including the analysis of variance and regression model. The present work suggests that there exists a positive correlation between the level of air pollution of a region and the lethality related to COVID-19, indicating air pollution to be an elemental and concealed factor in aggravating the global burden of deaths related to COVID-19. Past exposures to high level of PM 2.5 over a long period, is found to significantly correlate with present COVID-19 mortality per unit reported cases ( p < 0.05) compared to PM 10 , with non-significant correlation ( p = 0.118). The finding of the study can help government agencies, health ministries and policymakers globally to take proactive steps by promoting immunity-boosting supplements and appropriate masks to reduce the risks associated with COVID-19 in highly polluted areas.
Cited by 43 publications.
Field of study: Medicine