Initial evidence of higher morbidity and mortality due to SARS-CoV-2 in regions with lower air quality

Riccardo Pansini; Davide Fornacca

Skewness and Kurtosis were calculated for each variable to evaluate the normality of the distributions. Pearson and Kendall correlation matrices were produced and the corresponding coefficients were analysed according to the distribution type. We were particularly interested in the following relationships: ï‚· COVID-19 cases / 100,000 habitants vs. single air pollution variables; ï‚· COVID-19 deaths / 100,000 habitants vs. single air pollution variables; ï‚· Correlation between ground-measured pollution values vs. satellite-derived values. Satellite data should in fact be more advantageous than ground station data, because of their regular and continuous data acquisition, quasi-global coverage, and spatially consistent measurement methodology. On the other hand, ground stations offer real measures of single pollutants instead of deriving it from spectral information (satellites), however, they require more or less arbitrary estimations (such as interpolation) to fill spatial gaps.