Impact of air pollutants on COVID-19 transmission: a study over different metropolitan cities in India.

ABSTRACT

India is affected strongly by the Coronavirus and within a short period, it becomes the second-highest country based on the infected case. Earlier, there was an indication of the impact of pollution on COVID-19 transmission from a few studies with early COVID-19 data. The study of the effect of pollution on COVID-19 in Indian metropolitan cities is ideal due to the high level of pollution and COVID-19 transmission in these cities. We study the impact of different air pollutants on the spread of coronavirus in different cities in India. A correlation is studied with daily confirmed COVID-19 cases with a daily mean of ozone, particle matter (PM) in size ≤ 10 µ m, carbon monoxide, sulfur dioxide, and nitrogen dioxide of different cities. It is found that particulate matter concentration decreases during the nationwide lockdown period and the air quality index improves for different Indian regions. A correlation between the daily confirmed cases with particulate matter (PM 2.5 and PM 10 both) is observed. The air quality index also shows a positive correlation with the daily confirmed cases for most of the metropolitan Indian cities. The correlation study also indicates that different air pollutants may have a role in the spread of the virus.