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. 2021;23(4):5005-5015.
doi: 10.1007/s10668-020-00801-2. Epub 2020 Jun 5.

Global assessment of environment, health and economic impact of the novel coronavirus (COVID-19)

Samuel Asumadu Sarkodie  1 , Phebe Asantewaa Owusu  1
Affiliations

Global assessment of environment, health and economic impact of the novel coronavirus (COVID-19)

Samuel Asumadu Sarkodie et al. Environ Dev Sustain. 2021.

Abstract

The institution of social distancing and punitive measures to contain the spread of COVID-19 through human-to-human transmission has environmental, health and economic impact. While the global pandemic has led to the enhancement of the health system and decline of emissions, economic development appears deteriorating. Here, we present the global environmental, health and economic dimension of the effect of COVID-19 using qualitative and empirical assessments. We report the health system policies, environmental sustainability issues, and fiscal, monetary and exchange rate measures introduced during lockdown across countries. While air pollution is reported to have declined, municipal and medical waste is increasing. The COVID-19 global pandemic uncertainty ranks the UK as the country with the highest uncertainty level among 143 countries. The USA has introduced 100% of pre-COVID-19 crisis level GDP, the highest policy cut-rate among 162 countries. Science, innovation, research and development underpin COVID-19 containment measures implemented across countries. Our study demonstrates the need for future research to focus on environment-health-economic nexus-a trilemma that has a potential trade-off.

Keywords: COVID-19; Economic impact of COVID-19; Environmental impact of COVID-19; Health impact of COVID-19; Novel coronavirus; Sars-Cov-2; Social distancing measures.

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Figures

Fig. 1
Fig. 1
Global Uncertainty Index of COVID-19 pandemic
Fig. 2
Fig. 2
Global distribution of fiscal policy package due to pandemic (% of GDP)
Fig. 3
Fig. 3
Global distribution of monetary intervention to control BOP and exchange rate due to pandemic (% of GDP)
Fig. 4
Fig. 4
Global distribution of total economic stimulus to pandemic (% of GDP)
Fig. 5
Fig. 5
Global distribution of policy rate cut due to COVID-19 (% of pre-COVID-19 crisis level)
Fig. 6
Fig. 6
Global distribution of monetary stimulus package to COVID-19 (% of GDP)
Fig. 7
Fig. 7
Global average distribution of economic policy response to COVID-19 (% of GDP)
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