COVID-19 national lockdown in Morocco: impacts on air quality and public health

Khomsi, Kenza; Najmi, Houda; Amghar, Hassan; Chelhaoui, Youssef; Souhaili, Zineb

doi:10.1101/2020.07.05.20146589

Cited by 2 publications

(3 citation statements)

References 14 publications

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“…Thus, COVID-19 pandemic has proved to be a 'blessing in disguise' which can help earth to revive and improve air quality [35] which has been supported by many research studies conducted in different parts of the world [1,5,6,9,12,13,23,28,32,33,35,36,42,43,48,55,57,58,61,63,69,75]. Further it has been found that places where the air pollution was high, deaths rate due to COVID-19 also enhanced [13,23,32,48,69,75]. In India, the concentration of sulphur dioxide between April 2019 and April 2020 decreased by around 40% [19] as shown in Fig.…”

Section: Review Of Studies Linked With Air Pollution and Morality During Covid-19mentioning

confidence: 98%

“…Tian et al (2020) stated that longterm exposure to PM 2.5 is directly linked with COVID-19 mortality [69]. Najmi et al (2020) in their study compared the air quality status in Marrakech and Casablanca, two large cities from Morocco during the lockdown and before the pandemic and found drop in air pollutants benefitting the health of the humans and reducing the rate of morality [48].…”

Section: Review Of Studies Linked With Air Pollution and Morality During Covid-19mentioning

confidence: 99%

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COVID-19: Disaster or an Opportunity for Environmental Sustainability

Chauhan¹

2021

The Impact of the COVID-19 Pandemic on Green Societies

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Our earth is the only planet in our solar system where life is possible due to the ecological balance between atmosphere, lithosphere and hydrosphere. Our earth is inhabited by numerous varieties of plants, animals and micro-organisms besides humans. But human beings are considered as one of the most intelligent living organisms who has been exploiting the nature for his own benefit and disturbing the ecological balance of our ecosystem. Industrialization and globalization although are considered the primers in development of human civilizations but have gradually increased the carbon footprints and have generated many environmental problems like change in climate, extinction of many varieties of flora and fauna, pollution, etc. The development of science and technology has become a part and parcel of our lives today and we cannot sustain without them. The onset of corona pandemic in the world has clearly depicted the harm done by man to the environment. Clear sky, fresh air, calm surroundings, cleaner rivers, reduced waste, repairing of ozone hole, early monsoons, increase in wildlife sightings, undisturbed habitat for marine life, reduction in greenhouse gas emissions and particulate matter, etc., were some of the most visible changes noticed during the lockdown due to coronavirus which acted as an opportunity for repairing our Mother Nature. But COVID-19 pandemic has also brought many problems like unemployment, psychological problems, economic crisis, massive cuts in agriculture and fishery exports levels, generation of unrecyclable waste, rise in clinical waste, etc. The estimation of deaths due to coronavirus is difficult but according to world health organization (WHO) due to ailments caused by air pollution about 3 million people die each year which is more than the coronavirus toll to date. No doubt that the effects of the lockdown will be short-lived and economic activities resumption will again increase emission levels and it will wipe out all gains. Industries will make up their lost time by increasing production and pollution level will return to its pre-pandemic stage. Governments will face a shortage of resources to invest in clean energy which will increase the use of fossil fuels. So, need of the hour is to maintain improvements achieved due to lockdowns permanently and develop technologies that are eco friendly which can help in environmental sustainability. Some of the methods for environmental sustainability are

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Section: Review Of Studies Linked With Air Pollution and Morality During Covid-19mentioning

confidence: 98%

Section: Review Of Studies Linked With Air Pollution and Morality During Covid-19mentioning

confidence: 99%

COVID-19: Disaster or an Opportunity for Environmental Sustainability

Chauhan¹

2021

The Impact of the COVID-19 Pandemic on Green Societies

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…for some other individual urban areas, too [27]. In 2 cities in Morocco, Casablanca and Marrakech, it was estimated that the reduction in PM 2.5 levels contributed to avoiding, respectively, a total of 48 (95% CI: 70-89) and 15 (95% CI: 10-19), deaths related to PM 2.5 exposure during the quarantine period (32 days) [27]. According to recent research, this situation with the improved air quality in Europe saved about 11 000 lives (95% CI: 7000-21 000) only in 1 month [28].…”

Section: Covid-19mentioning

confidence: 99%

Short-term health effects of air quality changes during the COVID‑19 pandemic in the City of Novi Sad, the Republic of Serbia

Dragić¹,

Bijelović²,

Jevtić³

et al. 2021

Int J Occup Med Environ Health

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The objective of this research is to determine the change in outdoor air quality during the COVID-19 related state of emergency resulting in a lockdown and the potential health benefits for the urban population. Material and Methods: During 53 days of the COVID-19 related state of emergency with a lockdown (March 15-May 6, 2020) in the Republic of Serbia, as well as in the corresponding periods of 2018 and 2019, data on the daily sulfur dioxide (SO 2 ), nitrogen dioxide (NO 2 ), ground-level ozone (O 3 ) and particulate matter (PM 10 and PM 2.5 ) concentrations were analyzed. The total mortality data were analyzed to estimate the impact of the COVID-19 related lockdown measures on the burden of health in a given population, attributed to the outdoor air quality in the City of Novi Sad, using AirQ+ software. Results: The average daily concentrations of PM 2.5 , NO 2 , PM 10 and SO 2 were reduced by 35%, 34%, 23% and 18%, respectively. In contrast, the average daily concentration of O 3 increased by 8%, even if the primary precursors were reducing, thus representing a challenge for air quality management. In the City of Novi Sad, a reduction in the average daily PM 2.5 concentration of 11.23 μg/m³ was significant, which resulted in a quantified number of avoided deaths. Conclusions: Air pollution in the City of Novi Sad had a chance to be improved due to some preventive measures related to the infectious disease (the COVID-19 related lockdown), which in turn was the mitigation measure to air pollution with positive public health effects. The confirmed positive effects of the improved air quality on public health could also include raising collective resistance to mass non-communicable and infectious diseases such as COVID-19 and reducing economic costs.

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COVID-19 national lockdown in Morocco: impacts on air quality and public health

Cited by 2 publications

References 14 publications

COVID-19: Disaster or an Opportunity for Environmental Sustainability

COVID-19: Disaster or an Opportunity for Environmental Sustainability

Short-term health effects of air quality changes during the COVID‑19 pandemic in the City of Novi Sad, the Republic of Serbia

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