Impact of climate and ambient air pollution on the epidemic growth during COVID-19 outbreak in Japan

Abstract

Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) rapidly spread worldwide in the first quarter of 2020 and resulted in a global crisis. Investigation of the potential association of the spread of the COVID-19 infection with climate or ambient air pollution could lead to the development of preventive strategies for disease control. To examine this association, we conducted a longitudinal cohort study of 28 geographical areas of Japan with documented outbreaks of COVID-19. We analyzed data obtained from March 13 to April 6, 2020, before the Japanese government declared a state of emergency. The results revealed that the epidemic growth of COVID-19 was significantly associated with increase in daily temperature or sunshine hours. This suggests that an increase in person-to-person contact due to increased outing activities on a warm and/or sunny day might promote the transmission of COVID-19. Our results also suggested that short-term exposure to suspended particles might influence respiratory infections caused by the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). Further research by well-designed or well-controlled study models is required to ascertain this effect. Our findings suggest that weather has an indirect role in the transmission of COVID-19 and that daily adequate preventive behavior decreases the transmission.

Influence of Meteorological Factors on the COVID-19 Transmission with Season and Geographic Location

“…According to ecological adaptability theory, the major limiting meteorological factors of viruses vary for different seasons and climatic regions [ 18 , 21 , 24 , 32 ]. Similar results were found in previous research, which showed that the contribution of meteorological factors to COVID-19 transmission varied between tropical and temperate regions [ 11 , 12 , 13 , 14 ]. For example, high relative humidity mitigated the spread of COVID-19 in tropical regions [ 14 , 15 ], whereas it contributed to the increase of COVID-19 infections in temperate regions [ 32 , 43 ].…”

“…At present, many studies have proved that meteorological factors, especially temperature, air humidity and wind speed, have significant influence on COVID-19 transmission [ 7 , 8 , 9 , 10 , 11 , 12 , 13 , 14 , 15 , 16 , 17 , 18 , 19 ]. However, such studies are mostly drawn on large scales and humid regions [ 7 , 8 , 9 , 10 , 11 , 12 , 13 , 14 , 15 ]. The design of current pandemic control measures are usually based on the research output of these studies, which may not be applicable for small scales and arid inland cities.…”

“…Meteorological factors affect transmission of COVID-19 [ 3 , 4 , 5 , 6 ], but their influence varies greatly among different regions [ 7 , 8 , 9 , 10 ]. For example, temperature had a significant positive correlation with COVID-19 transmission in Singapore, Brazil, Indonesia, Japan and Norway [ 5 , 11 , 12 , 13 , 14 ], but significantly negatively correlated in New York City, Iran, Bangladesh and China [ 6 , 8 , 15 , 16 ], and not significantly related in the United States, Spain and Mexico [ 17 , 18 , 19 ]. Relative air humidity was positively correlated with COVID-19 transmission in Singapore and Brazil [ 11 , 13 ], but not directly linked in New York and India [ 6 , 9 ].…”

Pandemic induced lockdown as a boon to the Environment: trends in air pollution concentration across India

“…Several attempts have taken by the research community to understand the effects of a pandemic on air quality around the world (He et al 2020 ; Berman and Ebisu 2020 ; Azuma et al 2020 ). The presented manuscript is based on the dynamics of air quality parameters (PM 10 , PM 2.5 , NO 2 , SO 2 & CO) across 17 stations in climatic zones in India.…”

COVID-19 Influencing Factors on Transmission and Incidence Rates-Validation Analysis

“…Stated all the meteorological parameters showed positive correlation with COVID-19 cases studied in Singapore [38]. Also measured sunshine hours, besides [13,22,31,39]…”