Indirect response of the temperature, humidity, and rainfall on the spread of the COVID-19 over the Indian monsoon region

Abstract

This paper examines the role of the meteorological variable on the spread of the ongoing pandemic coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) across India. COVID-19 has created an unprecedented situation for public health and brought the world to a standstill. The COVID-19 has caused more than 1,523,242 deaths out of 66,183,029 confirmed cases and around the world till the first week of December 2020. We have examined the surface temperature, relative humidity, and rainfall over five cities namely Delhi, Mumbai, Kolkata, Bengaluru, and Chennai severely affected by COVID-19. It is found that the prevailing southwest (SW) monsoon during the pandemic has acted as a natural sanitizer in limiting the spread of the virus. The day-to-day variation of the meteorological parameters and COVID-19 cases clearly demonstrate both surface temperature and relative humidity play a vital role in the indirect transport of the virus. Our analysis reveals that the majority of the COVID-19 cases fall within the surface temperature ranging from 24oC to 30oC and relative humidity ranging from 50–80%. At a given temperature, COVID-19 cases show a large dependency on the relative humidity which attributes those coastal environments were more prone to infections. Wavelet transforms coherence analysis of the daily COVID-19 cases with temperature and relative humidity reveal a significant coherence within 8 days.