Investigation of Outdoor/Indoor Air Quality During the Outbreak of COVID-19: A Review Study

Abstract

The 2019 novel coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic has enormously affected the world and become a worldwide problem. To control the spread of COVID-19, human behaviors are generally controlled in most countries. However, exposure to air pollution causes increased susceptibility to COVID-19. The goal of this review research was to investigate the outdoor/indoor air quality during the outbreak of COVID-19. A review search was carried out from the databases Scopus, PubMed, Web of Knowledge, and Embase using the key words: "air quality" and "COVID-19 pandemic". Twenty-four released articles were ultimately identified as eligible candidates for review study. The type of environment, country and city, type of study, goal of study, and study findings were analyzed. The results demonstrated the significant relationship between air pollution (PM2.5, PM10, SO2, NO2, CO, and O3) and the COVID-19 event. Indoor pollutant concentrations were typically higher during COVID-19 lockdown. There is also a relationship between meteorological parameters (rainfall, relative humidity, temperature, wind speed, and sunlight) and COVID-19 spread. The air quality index (AQI) of most countries improved to varying grades of quality under the COVID-19 infection control. It is crucial that policy makers and decision makers adopt more valuable methods to assist betterment of air pollution, particularly in developing nations, or control contact with pollutants so as to preserve public wellbeing.

Insights on Air Pollution During COVID-19: A Review

“…Therefore, human beings within the home largely affect indoor air quality due to routine activities. Indoor activities such as cooking, cleaning, sweeping, and smoking affects the indoor air quality (Domínguez-Amarillo et al 2020 ; Megahed and Ghoneim 2021 ; Elsaid and Ahmed 2021 ; Fadaei 2022 ) (Fig. 2 ).…”