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

Riccardo Pansini; Davide Fornacca

The strong containment measures adopted firstly by the Chinese government have necessarily biased the natural virus spread 45 , not allowing the virus to distribute evenly to polluted and non-polluted areas of the country. As a result, these measures have been highly effective 46 . This applies also to those other countries where similar effective containment measures were taken at the earlier stages of the outbreaks 47 . There is nevertheless mounting evidence that the outbreaks went undetected for weeks, as in the case of northern Italy, imputed to be as early as 1 January 2020 and not as the first case registered on 20 February 2020 48 . This latter element may mitigate the role that the containment measures had at containing the diffusion of the virus, leading to air pollution playing a more relevant role in the incidence of the virus.