Seasonal correlation of meteorological parameters and PM2.5 with the COVID-19 confirmed cases and deaths in Baghdad, Iraq

Bassim Mohammed Hashim; Saadi K Al-Naseri; Alaa M Hamadi; Tahani Anwar Mahmood; Bijay Halder; Shamsuddin Shahid; Zaher Mundher Yaseen

doi:10.1016/j.ijdrr.2023.103799

Seasonal correlation of meteorological parameters and PM_2.5 with the COVID-19 confirmed cases and deaths in Baghdad, Iraq

Int J Disaster Risk Reduct. 2023 Aug:94:103799. doi: 10.1016/j.ijdrr.2023.103799. Epub 2023 Jun 18.

Authors

Bassim Mohammed Hashim¹, Saadi K Al-Naseri¹, Alaa M Hamadi¹, Tahani Anwar Mahmood¹, Bijay Halder^{2

3}, Shamsuddin Shahid⁴, Zaher Mundher Yaseen^{5

6}

Affiliations

¹ Environment, Water and Renewable Energy Directorate, Ministry of Science and Technology, Baghdad, Iraq.
² Department of Remote Sensing and GIS, Vidyasagar University, Midnapore, 721102, India.
³ New Era and Development in Civil Engineering Research Group, Scientific Research Center, Al-Ayen University, Nasiriyah, 64001, Iraq.
⁴ Department of Water & Environmental Engineering, University of Teknologi Malaysia, 81310, Johor, Malaysia.
⁵ Civil and Environmental Engineering Department, King Fahd University of Petroleum & Minerals, Dhahran, 31261, Saudi Arabia.
⁶ Interdisciplinary Research Center for Membranes and Water Security, King Fahd University of Petroleum & Minerals, Dhahran, 31261, Saudi Arabia.

Abstract

The COVID-19 pandemic was a serious global health emergency in 2020 and 2021. This study analyzed the seasonal association of weekly averages of meteorological parameters, such as wind speed, solar radiation, temperature, relative humidity, and air pollutant PM2.5, with confirmed COVID-19 cases and deaths in Baghdad, Iraq, a major megacity of the Middle East, for the period June 2020 to August 2021. Spearman and Kendall correlation coefficients were used to investigate the association. The results showed that wind speed, air temperature, and solar radiation have positive and strong correlations with the confirmed cases and deaths in the cold season (autumn and winter 2020-2021). The total COVID-19 cases negatively correlated with relative humidity but were not significant in all seasons. Besides, PM2.5 strongly correlated with COVID-19 confirmed cases for the summer of 2020. The death distribution by age group showed the highest deaths for those aged 60-69. The highest number of deaths was 41% in the summer of 2020. The study provided useful information about the COVID-19 health emergency and meteorological parameters, which can be used for future health disaster planning, adopting prevention strategies and providing healthcare procedures to protect against future infraction transmission.

Keywords: Baghdad; COVID-19 epidemic; Correlation; Meteorological parameters; PM2.5; Seasonal variation.