Impact of environmental indicators on the COVID-19 pandemic in Delhi, India

Abstract

Currently there is a huge debate on whether meteorological and air quality parameters are playing a crucial role in the transmission of COVID-19 across the globe. On this background, this study aims to evaluate the impact of air pollutants (PM2.5, PM10, CO, NOx, SO2, AQI), and meteorological parameters (temperature, humidity, wind speed, and rainfall) on the spread, recoveries and mortality due to COVID-19 outbreak in Delhi. Spearman’s correlation method is employed on a secondary data collected from the Ministry of Environment, India and the COVID-19 data collected using daily government health bulletins for Delhi. Our result shows that the COVID-19 incidences are significantly positively correlated with temperature (r infections= 0.90, r recoveries= 0.84, r deaths= 0.83, p<0.05) and negatively correlated with humidity (r infections = -0.63, r recoveries = -0.58, r deaths = -0.56, p<0.05). This finding indicates that temperature and humidity play a significant role on the infections, recoveries and deaths due to the COVID-19. The study results may be useful for policymakers in managing the outbreak of COVID-19 in Delhi, India.