COVID-19 cases may rise in cool, dry, wind-free areas with high air pollution, suggests Italian study

Weather variables and air pollution may favour COVID-19 pandemic transmission, leading to a higher number of deaths, finds a new study conducted in Northern Italian cities during the first lockdown of 2020, when all non-essential activities ceased. The researchers paired data on COVID-19 patients in intensive care units (ICUs), in Milan, Trento and Florence, alongside weather variables and air pollution data for the first wave of the pandemic to establish if the water content of the air (humidity), temperature or air pollution¹, were positively or negatively correlated to the high numbers of COVID-19 patients in ICU admissions. Click here to read more