Variations in climate and global spread of COVID-19: Implications for control in tropical and warmer climates

Abstract

Health and climatic changes have been linked for centuries. Viruses, bacteria, fungi and parasites are sensitive to environmental conditions including ambient temperature, humidity, smog, and other climatic factors like exposure to sunlight. Viral respiratory tract infections such as seasonal influenza are known to become epidemic primarily during cold weather conditions influenced also by population density and travel patterns. The winter months in China are from November to March. The SARS-CoV-1 outbreak commenced in Guangdong Province, in November 2002 and the SARS-CoV-2 outbreak in Wuhan in early December 2019. Understanding how the emergence and spread of COVID-19 could be affected by climatic conditions may be an important aspect for disease control. As of August 4th 2020, 18 142 718 confirmed cases and 691 013 deaths have been reported to the WHO from all continents [...].

Keywords

• COVID-19
• SARS-CoV-2
• climate
• environmental
• intervention
• air-conditioning