Impacts of social and economic factors on the transmission of coronavirus disease (COVID-19) in China

Yun Qiu; Xi Chen; Wei Shi

For instance, more precipitation increases humidity that may weaken virus transmissions (Lowen and Steel, 2014) . Both more rainfall and lower temperature may reduce social activities. Lower temperatures may also enhance the infectiousness of the virus in the environment . Higher wind speed and therefore ventilated air may disturb virus transmissions. Current new cases arise from contracting the virus in the past, and for the case of COVID-19, typically within two weeks. The extent of human-to-human transmission is determined by the number of people who already contracted the virus and the environmental conditions within two weeks. Conditional on the number of confirmed cases and environmental conditions within two weeks, it is plausible that weather conditions further in the past should not affect current new cases.