On Interesting Correlation between Meteorological Parameters and COVID-19 Pandemic in Saudi Arabia

ABSTRACT

The recent outbreak of COVID-19 pandemic cases around the globe has affected Saudi Arabia with around 15, 00,000 confirmed cases within the initial 4 months of transmission. The present investigation analyzed the relationship between daily COVID-19 confirmed cases and meteorological parameters in seventeen cities of KSA. We used secondary published data from the Ministry of Health, KSA daily dataset of COVID-19 confirmed case counts. The meteorological parameters used in the present investigation are temperature, humidity, dew point, and wind speed. Pearson correlation and Spearman rank correlation tests were utilized for data analysis. The incubation period of COVID-19 varies from 1 day to 14 days as per available information. Therefore, an attempt has been made to analyze the effects of meteorological factors with bins of 1, 3, 7, and 14 days. The results suggested that the highest number of correlations (15 cities) was observed for temperature (maximum, minimum, and average) and humidity (12 cities) (minimum and average). The dew point showed relationships for 7 cities and wind showed moderate correlations only for 2 cities. The study results might be useful for authorities and stakeholders in taking specific measures to combat the Covid-19 pandemic.