Does environmental quality and weather induce COVID-19: Case study of Istanbul, Turkey

Abstract

The coronavirus pandemic has infected more than 100 million people worldwide with COVID-19, with millions of deaths across the globe. In this research, we explored the effects of environmental and weather variables with daily COVID-19 cases and COVID-19 fatalities in Istanbul, Turkey. Turkey has the 8th highest number of COVID-19 cases globally, with the highest infections and deaths in Istanbul. This may be the first study to conduct a comprehensive investigation for environmental quality (air quality pollutants, e.g., PM2.5 and PM10, ozone, nitrogen dioxide, sulfur dioxide, carbon monoxide, etc.), weather parameters (temperature, humidity) and COVID-19 in Turkey. The authors collected meteorological data from 11 March 2020 to 8 February 2021 and COVID-19 data from Istanbul and other regions. The results from empirical estimations, correlation analysis, and quantile on quantile techniques support that air quality and temperature significantly influence COVID-19 deaths in Istanbul. This research may help policymakers and health scientists to take specific measures to reduce the spread of coronavirus across different global cities.

• The effects of air quality on COVID-19 in Istanbul was investigated.

• The study applied correlation and quantile on quantile techniques over daily data.

• Temperature significantly induces the spread of COVID-19 in Istanbul at all quantiles.

• Air quality and Nitrogen are positively linked with COVID-19 new cases.

KEYWORDS:

• COVID-19
• coronavirus
• environment
• air quality
• temperature
• humidity
• Istanbul
• nitrogen dioxide
• sulfur dioxide
• carbon monoxide

Research highlights:

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Acknowledgement

All data generated or analyzed during this study are available from the corresponding author on reasonable request. The authors have no conflict of interest.

Notes

1 The COVID-19 is defined as disease caused by a new strain of coronavirus. 'CO' stands for corona, 'VI' for virus, and 'D' for disease. Formerly, this disease was referred to as '2019 novel coronavirus' or '2019-nCoV.