Environmental implications of reduced electricity consumption in Wuhan during COVID-19 outbreak: A brief study

Abstract

Due to the COVID-19 outbreak, Wuhan was locked down from 23 January 2020 to 8 April 2020, a total of 76 days. It is well known that the electricity consumption is a direct reflection of human activity. During the lockdown of Wuhan, most of human activities were forbidden. The reduction in human activity would inevitably lead to a reduction in electricity consumption. At the same time, anthropogenic emissions of air pollutants would also be reduced with the reduction of human activity. In this study, the correlation between electricity consumption and air pollutants during lockdown was discussed in detail. The result showed that the drop in pollutants concentrations in January should be attributed to the washout effect of rainfall rather than the lockdown. The decrease of electricity consumption in the secondary industry might play a significant role on the decrease of PM and NO 2 concentrations in Wuhan in February 2020. The decrease in NO 2 concentration in March should be attributed to the reduction of pollutants emissions from the tertiary industry, which means that more attention should be paid to the control of NO 2 emission in the tertiary industry. Due to reduced emissions from local sources, the role of long-range transport sources might be more significant during the lockdown of Wuhan. By PSCF analysis, southeast of Wuhan could be the major potential emission sources of PM , especially in the northern part of Jiangxi province. It was suggested that stricter regulation of pollutants emissions should be implemented in this area.

The effects of air pollution, meteorological parameters, and climate change on COVID-19 comorbidity and health disparities: A systematic review

“…While some of the above-mentioned studies showed a significant relationship between meteorological parameters and COVID-19 incidence, others found no such relationship. Studies that found no association between temperature, relative humidity, and UV irradiance data with transmissibility and incidence of COVID-19 were conducted in China [ 93 , 94 ], Spain [ 22 ], South America, Africa [ 54 ] and Canada [ 66 ]. Using geospatial technology, Singh et al [ 95 ] reported that COVID-19 transmission/mortality is seasonally related to air quality (methane, CO, NO 2 , SO 2 , O 3 ) in the USA, India, Brazil, Russia, France, Spain, Argentina, UK, Columbia and Mexico.…”

“…A cross-sectional study conducted in the United States found a correlation between long-term exposure to PM 2.5 and the COVID-19 mortality rates [ 94 ]. Annual daily data of hourly concentrations of air pollutants showed significant associations with daily, PCR-confirmed cases and deaths in three major Iranian cities [ 68 ].…”