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Incidence of COVID-19 and Connections with Air Pollution Exposure : Evidence from the Netherlands (English)

The fast spread of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 has resulted in the emergence of several hot-spots around the world. Several of these are located in areas associated with high levels of air pollution. This study investigates the relationship between exposure to particulate matter and COVID-19 incidence in 355 municipalities in the Netherlands. The results show that atmospheric particulate matter with diameter less than 2.5 is a highly significant predictor of the number of confirmed COVID-19 cases and related hospital admissions. The estimates suggest that expected COVID-19 cases increase by nearly 100 percent when pollution concentrations increase by 20 percent. The association between air pollution and case incidence is robust in the presence of data on health-related preconditions, proxies for symptom severity, and demographic control variables. The results are obtained with ground-measurements and satellite-derived measures of atmospheric particulate matter as well as COVID-19 data from alternative dates. The findings call for further investigation into the association between air pollution and SARS-CoV-2 infection risk. If particulate matter plays a significant role in COVID-19 incidence, it has strong implications for the mitigation strategies required to prevent spreading.

Details

  • Author

    Andree,Bo Pieter Johannes

  • Document Date

    2020/04/24

  • Document Type

    Policy Research Working Paper

  • Report Number

    WPS9221

  • Volume No

    1

  • Total Volume(s)

    1

  • Country

    Netherlands,

  • Region

    Europe and Central Asia,

  • Disclosure Date

    2020/04/24

  • Disclosure Status

    Disclosed

  • Doc Name

    Incidence of COVID-19 and Connections with Air Pollution Exposure : Evidence from the Netherlands

  • Keywords

    transport by air; Population Density; hospital admission; public health and environment; severe acute respiratory syndrome; air pollution exposure; atmospheric particulate matter; conditional expectation; air pollution levels; prevalence of overweight; incidence of measles; Demographic and Health; source of pollution; risk of infection; public health service; spatial distribution; spatial autocorrelation; parameter estimate; high concentration; estimation result; linear regression; Finance Solutions; respiratory infection; environmental factor; pollution concentration; water surface; spatial variation; spatial model; mitigation strategy; observed value; demographic characteristic; average household; male population; case fatality; polluted areas; respiratory health; regression results; standard error; relative risk; health indicator; population health; parameter value; spatial regression; household composition; demographic statistic; regression techniques; vulnerable population; household characteristic; air pollutant; severe cases; case detection; raw data; population distribution; spatial correlation; industrial region; automobile industry; viral infection; respiratory tract; econometric model; multiple sources; mean value; model prediction; data coverage; numerical integration; regression analysis; regional variation; viral spread; measurement error; estimation technique; normal distribution; small sample; confirmed case; linear model; alcohol abuse; data control; long-term exposure; municipality level; recent years; robustness analysis; health statistics; alternative measure; geographical spillover; time sery; disease spread; marital status; alcohol use; anthropogenic activity; development policy; open access; Research Support; measles virus; disease outbreak; short-term exposure; airborne disease; positive relationship; global pandemic; environmental contamination; airborne transmission

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Citation

Andree,Bo Pieter Johannes

Incidence of COVID-19 and Connections with Air Pollution Exposure : Evidence from the Netherlands (English). Policy Research working paper,no. WPS 9221,COVID-19 (Coronavirus) Washington, D.C. : World Bank Group. http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/462481587756439003/Incidence-of-COVID-19-and-Connections-with-Air-Pollution-Exposure-Evidence-from-the-Netherlands

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