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

Riccardo Pansini; Davide Fornacca

Infected people were more likely to die in the Chinese, Italian, and American areas with poor air quality, regardless of the higher number of cases. Our mortality ratio was higher and in particular so in China, where PM2.5 and CO were at levels considered unhealthy, and in the U.S.A. where CO and NO2 were higher than the average. In the U.S.A., levels of PM2.5 have just been found responsible for 20-time higher mortality rate by COVID-19, a rate much higher than other demographic co-variables 69 . We found that in Italy, the correspondence between poor air quality and SARS-CoV-2 appearance and its induced mortality was the starkest. It should be noted that the Italian higher mortality than the one predicted from mathematical modelling is unlikely caused by genetic mutations of the virus 70 . Therefore, other factors must be attributed to such a stronger virulence. We still need to obtain the Italian mortality data at the small administrative level, but pollution seems to be one of the suitable predictors.