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. 2020 Aug:187:109652.
doi: 10.1016/j.envres.2020.109652. Epub 2020 May 13.

Correlation between environmental pollution indicators and COVID-19 pandemic: A brief study in Californian context

Muhammad Farhan Bashir  1 , Ben Jiang Ma  1 , Bilal  2 , Bushra Komal  3 , Muhammad Adnan Bashir  4 , Taimoor Hassan Farooq  5 , Najaf Iqbal  6 , Madiha Bashir  7
Affiliations

Correlation between environmental pollution indicators and COVID-19 pandemic: A brief study in Californian context

Muhammad Farhan Bashir et al. Environ Res. 2020 Aug.

Abstract

In December 2019, the novel coronavirus COVID-19 outbreak was first detected in Wuhan Hubei province, China. The April 24, 2020, the Centers for Disease Control and Preventions (CDC) has confirmed more than 39,000 cases, including >1800 deaths. California's Governor Gavin Newsom ordered mandatory stay at home after World Health Organization (WHO) declared COVID-19 as a global pandemic in early March. We have evaluated the correlation between environmental pollution determinants and the COVID-19 outbreak in California by using the secondary published data from the Centers for Disease Control and the Environmental Pollution Agency (EPA). We employed Spearman and Kendall correlation tests to analyze the association of PM 2.5, PM 10, SO2, NO2, Pb, VOC, and CO with COVID-19 cases in California. Our findings indicate that environmental pollutants such as PM10, PM2.5, SO2, NO2, and CO have a significant correlation with the COVID-19 epidemic in California. Overall, our study is a useful supplement to encourage regulatory bodies to promote changes in environmental policies as pollution source control can reduce the harmful effects of environmental pollutants.

Keywords: COVID-19; California; Environmental pollution; PM 10; PM 2.5.

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Conflict of interest statement

Declaration of competing interest We certify that the manuscript titled. “ Correlation between environmental pollution indicators and COVID-19 pandemic: A brief study in Californian context” (hereinafter referred to as ‘the Paper’) has been entirely our original work except otherwise indicated and it does not infringe the copyright of any third party. The submission of the Paper to Environmental Research implies that the Paper has not been published previously (except in the form of an abstract or as a part of a published lecture or academic thesis), that it is not under consideration for publication elsewhere, that its publication is approved by all authors and that, if accepted, will not be published elsewhere in the same form, in English or any other language, without the written consent of the Publisher.

Figures

Fig. 1
Fig. 1
COVID-19 outbreak in California, USA (Source: California Department of Public Health).
Fig. 2
Fig. 2
Total cases and deaths from COVID-19 in California.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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