6533b834fe1ef96bd129e1f7

RESEARCH PRODUCT

A city-level analysis of air pollution, climate and COVID-19 early spread during the Spanish lockdown

subject

description

AbstractThe COVID-19 outbreak has escalated into the worse pandemic of the present century. The fast spread of the new SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus has caused devastating health and economic crises all over the world, with Spain being one of the worst affected countries in terms of confirmed COVID-19 cases and deaths per inhabitant. In this situation, the Spanish Government declared the lockdown of the country. The variations of air pollution in terms of fine particulate matter (PM2.5) levels in seven cities of Spain are analyzed here considering the effect of meteorology during the national lockdown. The possible associations of PM2.5pollution and climate with COVID-19 accumulated cases were also analyzed. While the epidemic curve was flattened, the results of the analysis show that the 4-week Spanish lockdown significantly reduced the PM2.5levels in only one of the cities despite the drastically reduced human activity in good agreement with our previous study of changes in air quality in terms of CO, SO2, PM10, O3and NO2levels. Furthermore, no associations between either PM2.5exposure or environmental conditions and COVID-19 transmission were found during the early spread of the pandemic.