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. 2020 Dec:191:109938.
doi: 10.1016/j.envres.2020.109938. Epub 2020 Jul 15.

Spread of SARS-CoV-2 through Latin America and the Caribbean region: A look from its economic conditions, climate and air pollution indicators

Tomás R Bolaño-Ortiz  1 , Yiniva Camargo-Caicedo  2 , Salvador Enrique Puliafito  3 , María Florencia Ruggeri  4 , Sindy Bolaño-Diaz  2 , Romina Pascual-Flores  3 , Jorge Saturno  5 , Sergio Ibarra-Espinosa  6 , Olga L Mayol-Bracero  7 , Elvis Torres-Delgado  7 , Francisco Cereceda-Balic  8
Affiliations

Spread of SARS-CoV-2 through Latin America and the Caribbean region: A look from its economic conditions, climate and air pollution indicators

Tomás R Bolaño-Ortiz et al. Environ Res. 2020 Dec.

Abstract

We have evaluated the spread of SARS-CoV-2 through Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC) region by means of a correlation between climate and air pollution indicators, namely, average temperature, minimum temperature, maximum temperature, rainfall, average relative humidity, wind speed, and air pollution indicators PM10, PM2.5, and NO2 with the COVID-19 daily new cases and deaths. The study focuses in the following LAC cities: Mexico City (Mexico), Santo Domingo (Dominican Republic), San Juan (Puerto Rico), Bogotá (Colombia), Guayaquil (Ecuador), Manaus (Brazil), Lima (Perú), Santiago (Chile), São Paulo (Brazil) and Buenos Aires (Argentina). The results show that average temperature, minimum temperature, and air quality were significantly associated with the spread of COVID-19 in LAC. Additionally, humidity, wind speed and rainfall showed a significant relationship with daily cases, total cases and mortality for various cities. Income inequality and poverty levels were also considered as a variable for qualitative analysis. Our findings suggest that and income inequality and poverty levels in the cities analyzed were related to the spread of COVID-19 positive and negative, respectively. These results might help decision-makers to design future strategies to tackle the spread of COVID-19 in LAC and around the world.

Keywords: COVID-19; Climate indicators; Economic conditions; Latin America and the Caribbean; Pollution indicators.

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Conflict of interest statement

On behalf of all author, the corresponding author states that there is no conflict of interest.

Figures

Image 1
Graphical abstract
Fig. 1
Fig. 1
Location of cities under study in the Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC) region. Number of COVID-19 confirmed cases as of 31 May 2020 are indicated by color scale. (For interpretation of the references to color in this figure legend, the reader is referred to the Web version of this article.)
Fig. 2
Fig. 2
Cases of COVID-19 in several cities of Latin America and the Caribbean. Green and blue lines indicate the total confirmed cases and total deaths, respectively. (For interpretation of the references to color in this figure legend, the reader is referred to the Web version of this article.)
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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