Effects of temperature variation and humidity on the mortality of COVID-19 in Wuhan
25 Mar, 2020Objective
Meteorological parameters are the important factors influencing the infectious diseases like
severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS). This study aims to explore the association between
coronavirus disease (COVID-19) death and weather parameters.
Methods
In this study, we collected the daily death number of COVID-19, meteorological and air
pollutant data from 20 January, 2020 to 29 February, 2020 in Wuhan, China. Then, the generalized
additive model was applied to explore the impact of temperature, humidity and diurnal temperature
range on daily mortality of COVID-19.
Results
There were in total 2299 COVID-19 mortality counts in Wuhan. A positive association with
COVID-19 mortality was observed for diurnal temperature range (r = 0.44), but negative association
for relative humidity (r = −0.32). In addition, each 1 unit increase in diurnal temperature range was
only associated with a 2.92% (95% CI: 0.61%, 5.28%) increase in COVID-19 mortality at lag 3.
However, both per 1 unit increase of temperature and absolute humidity were related to the decreased
COVID-19 mortality at lag 3 and lag 5, respectively.
Conclusion
In summary, this study suggests the temperature variation and humidity may be important
factors affecting the COVID-19 mortality.