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. 2020 Oct:189:109941.
doi: 10.1016/j.envres.2020.109941. Epub 2020 Jul 15.

Temporal association between particulate matter pollution and case fatality rate of COVID-19 in Wuhan

Ye Yao  1 , Jinhua Pan  1 , Zhixi Liu  1 , Xia Meng  1 , Weidong Wang  1 , Haidong Kan  2 , Weibing Wang  3
Affiliations

Temporal association between particulate matter pollution and case fatality rate of COVID-19 in Wuhan

Ye Yao et al. Environ Res. 2020 Oct.

Abstract

The coronavirus (COVID-19) epidemic reported for the first time in Wuhan, China at the end of 2019, which has caused 4648 deaths in China as of July 10, 2020. This study explored the temporal correlation between the case fatality rate (CFR) of COVID-19 and particulate matter (PM) in Wuhan. We conducted a time series analysis to examine the temporal day-by-day associations. We observed a higher CFR of COVID-19 with increasing concentrations of inhalable particulate matter (PM) with an aerodynamic diameter of 10 μm or less (PM10) and fine PM with an aerodynamic diameter of 2.5 μm or less (PM2.5) in the temporal scale. This association may affect patients with mild to severe disease progression and affect their prognosis.

Keywords: COVID-19; Case fatality rate; Particulate matter; Wuhan.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare no competing interests.

Figures

Fig. 1
Fig. 1
The association between PM and CFR. A: The number of daily diagnosed cases and deaths from January 16 to March 16, 2020 in Wuhan. It showed the peak time of newly diagnosed cases in Wuhan was around February 5 and the peak time of new deaths in Wuhan was February 23: a difference of 18 days. B: The case fatality rate (blue dots), PM2.5 (light-green dots), and PM10 (green dots) from February 19 to March 15, 2020. And PM2.5, PM10 and CFR held the same trend with a time lag. C: The daily case fatality rate versus PM2.5 and PM10 pollution. The case fatality rate was positively associated with the 2-day lag PM2.5 (green dots, r = 0.65, P = 2.8 × 10−5) and PM10 (blue dots, r = 0.66, P = 1.9 × 10−5) pollution. Temperature and relative humidity effects were removed during statistical analysis. (For interpretation of the references to colour in this figure legend, the reader is referred to the Web version of this article.)
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