ABSTRACT
The climatological parameters can be different in various geographical locations. Moreover, they have possible impacts on COVID-19 incidence. Therefore, the purpose of this systematic review article was to describe the effects of climatic variables on COVID-19 pandemic in different countries. Systematic literature search was performed in Scopus, ISI Web of Science, and PubMed databases using ("Climate" OR "Climate Change" OR "Global Warming" OR "Global Climate Change" OR "Meteorological Parameters" OR "Temperature" OR "Precipitation" OR "Relative Humidity" OR "Wind Speed" OR "Sunshine" OR "Climate Extremes" OR "Weather Extremes") AND ("COVID" OR "Coronavirus disease 2019" OR "COVID-19" OR "SARS-CoV-2" OR "Novel Coronavirus") keywords. From 5229 articles, 424 were screened and 149 were selected for further analysis. The relationship between meteorological parameters is variable in different geographical locations. The results indicate that among the climatic indicators, the temperature is the most significant factor that influences on COVID-19 pandemic in most countries. Some studies were proved that warm and wet climates can decrease COVID-19 incidence; however, the other studies represented that warm location can be a high risk of COVID-19 incidence. It could be suggested that all climate variables such as temperature, humidity, rainfall, precipitation, solar radiation, ultraviolet index, and wind speed could cause spread of COVID-19. Thus, it is recommended that future studies will survey the role of all meteorological variables and interaction between them on COVID-19 spread in specific small areas such as cities of each country and comparison between them.
ABSTRACT
The COVID-19 pandemic has a close relationship with local environmental conditions. This study explores the effects of climate characteristics and air pollution on COVID-19 in Isfahan province, Iran. A number of COVID-19 positive cases, main air pollutants, air quality index (AQI), and climatic variables were received from March 1, 2020, to January 19, 2021. Moreover, CO, NO2, and O3 tropospheric levels were collected using Sentinel-5P satellite data. The spatial distribution of variables was estimated by the ordinary Kriging and inverse weighted distance (IDW) models. A generalized linear model (GLM) was used to analyze the relationship between environmental variables and COVID-19. The seasonal trend of nitrogen dioxide (NO2), wind speed, solar energy, and rainfall like COVID-19 was upward in spring and summer. The high and low temperatures increased from April to August. All variables had a spatial autocorrelation and clustered pattern except AQI. Furthermore, COVID-19 showed a significant association with month, climate, solar energy, and NO2. Suitable policy implications are recommended to be performed for improving people's healthcare and control of the COVID-19 pandemic. This study could survey the local spread of COVID-19, with consideration of the effect of environmental variables, and provides helpful information to health ministry decisions for mitigating harmful effects of environmental change. By means of the proposed approach, probably the COVID-19 spread can be recognized by knowing the regional climate in major cities. The present study also finds that COVID-19 may have an effect on climatic condition and air pollutants.