Abstract
Objective: The COVID-19 pandemic that emerged in December 2019 brought human life to a standstill. With over 2-year since the pandemic originated from Wuhan, SARS-CoV-2 has caused more than 6 million deaths worldwide. With the emergence of mutant strains and COVID-19 surge waves, it becomes critically important to conduct epidemiological studies that allow us to understand the role of various environmental factors on SARS-CoV-2 infectivity. Our earlier study reported a strong negative correlation between temperature and COVID-19 incidence. This research is an extension of our previous study with an attempt to understand the global analysis of COVID-19 in northern hemisphere countries.
Study design: This research aims at achieving a better understanding of the correlation of environmental factors such as temperature, sunlight, and humidity with new cases of COVID-19 in northern hemisphere from March 2020 to February 2022.
Methods: To understand the relationship between the different environmental variants and COVID-19, a statistical approach was employed using Pearson, Spearman and Kendall analysis.
Results: Month-wise univariate analysis indicated a strong negative correlation of temperature and sunlight with SARS-CoV-2 infectivity, whereas inconsistencies were observed in correlation analysis in the case of humidity in winter months. Moreover, a strong negative correlation between average temperature of winter months and COVID-19 cases exists as evidenced by Pearson, Spearman, and Kendall analyses. In addition, correlation pattern between monthly temperature and COVID-19 cases of a country mimics to that of sunlight of a country.
Conclusion: This pilot study proposes that low temperatures and low sunlight might be additional risk factors for SARS-CoV-2 infectivity, mostly in northern hemisphere countries.
Keywords: Environment temperature; Humidity; Northern hemisphere; SARS-CoV-2; Sunlight; Winter.
【저자키워드】 SARS-CoV-2, Humidity, Environment temperature, Northern hemisphere, Sunlight, Winter., 【초록키워드】 COVID-19, pandemic, COVID-19 pandemic, variant, risk factor, Environment, Wuhan, Research, death, temperature, Humidity, Winter, correlation, Analysis, Mutant strains, mutant strain, Sunlight, COVID-19 cases, COVID-19 incidence, Correlation analysis, pilot study, environmental factors, COVID-19 case, epidemiological studies, average, negative correlation, Epidemiological study, extension, Univariate analysis, Pearson, global analysis, Spearman, approach, environmental factor, country, statistical, standstill, caused, reported, indicated, addition, analyses, evidenced, 【제목키워드】 Data analysis, Effect, environmental factor,