Air quality and the COVID-19 outbreak in China

ABSTRACT

We appreciate that Urrutia-Pereira M., et al. have reported on "COVID-19 and air pol­lution A dangerous association."1 Research on the role of air pollution in the spread of SARS-CoV-2 is worth discussing. Air pollution refers to harmful substances that are carried in the air. When the quantity or proportion of the pollutants reaches or exceeds the environmental carrying capacity, they will change the normal state of the environment.2 With rapid economic development around the world, global pollution gradually increases. Ecological governance has become a crucial issue across the globe.3 Pollution control is also a highly debated issue between developing countries and developed countries; China too has an environmental pollution control problem.4 China began to pay attention to the question of pollution control and its preven­tion methods early on. The Chinese government has formulated many policies in this respect. However, these measures did not improve the environment. At the end of 2019, the COVID-19 epidemic broke in Wuhan, China.5 The Chinese government has taken a series of measures to control the outbreak. Wuhan was locked down on January 23, 2020, and people's travel was restricted. We downloaded the daily air pollution parameters of 367 cities around China from the China Meteorological Administration website (http//data.cma.cn/). Records covered the periods between January 23, 2019 and March 23, 2019; November 22, 2019 and January 22, 2020; and January 23, 2020 and March 23, 2020. Pollution severity was divided into quartiles according to the air quality index (AQI). The AQI was calculated using the con­centration of the following six pollutants PM10, PM2.5, CO, NO2, SO2, and O3. An AQI of 0-100 indicates no pollution, 101-150 indicates mild pollution, 151-200 indicates moderate pollution, and AQI > 200 indicates severe pollution (USEPA 2013, http//www.Gpo.gov/). We found a significant improvement in air quality across China as a result of the reduction

RESUMEN

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