Two mechanisms for accelerated diffusion of COVID-19 outbreaks in regions with high intensity of population and polluting industrialization: the air pollution-to-human and human-to-human transmission dynamics

Mario Coccia

The main results of the study here, based on case study of COVID-19 outbreak in Italy, are: o Hinterland cities with higher number of average days exceeding the limits set for PM10 have a very high number of infected people on 1 st April, 2020 (arithmetic mean is about 2,000 infected, with average polluted days more than 80), than coastal cities also having days of exceeding the limits set for PM10 or ozone (arithmetic mean about 700 infected, with average polluted days about 60). In fact, coastal cities have an average higher intensity of wind speed (about 12 km/h) than hinterland cities (8 km/h) and statistical analysis reveals a negative coefficient correlation between number of infected and intensity of wind speed (r= 28 to 38%, p-value . CC-BY-NC-ND 4.0 International license It is made available under a author/funder, who has granted medRxiv a license to display the preprint in perpetuity.