The nexus between meteorological parameters and COVID-19 pandemic: case of Islamabad, Pakistan

Rehman, Abdul; Ashraf, Fatima; Javed, Zeeshan; Hussain, Mudassar; Farooq, Taimoor Hassan; Shakoor, Awais; Shahzad, Sher Muhammad

The study aimed to investigate the correlation between meteorological parameters and the spread of the COVID-19 pandemic in Islamabad, Pakistan. The meteorological parameters include temperature minimum (°C), temperature maximum (°C), temperature average (°C), humidity minimum (%), humidity maximum (%), humidity average (%), and rainfall (mm). The data of COVID-19, such as the number of new confirmed cases and deaths was obtained from the Ministry of Health, Pakistan. The correlations of various types, i.e., Pearson, Spearman, and Kendall correlations between meteorological parameters and COVID-19, were employed for data analyses. The results exhibited a highly significant relationship between COVID-19 and temperature minimum and temperature average among all meteorological parameters. The study findings may help competitive authorities to combat this disease in Pakistan. ELECTRONIC SUPPLEMENTARY MATERIAL: The online version of this article (10.1007/s42398-020-00125-x) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.