Covid, weather correlated, says study
Meta-analysis, carried out by Partha Pratim Ray of Sikkim University and Poulomi Majumdar of Maulana Abul Kalam Azad University of Technology, Kolkata said rainfall has a positive correlation with Covid cases.
Hyderabad: The correlation between Covid-19 infection and weather parameters has been a debatable issue ever since the outbreak of the pandemic. While some studies have directly linked the two, other studies have found no such evidence, creating confusion.
A new meta-analysis, taken up by Indian researchers, of existing studies on their correlation has now found a strong connection between weather and the incidence of Covid cases. The study was published in the online peer-reviewed open-access journal, Scientific Reports, published by Nature Research on May 21, 2021.
The meta-analysis, carried out by Partha Pratim Ray of Sikkim University and Poulomi Majumdar of Maulana Abul Kalam Azad University of Technology, Kolkata, of over 11 scientific articles that were published between December, 2019, and June, 2020, said rainfall has a positive correlation with the incidence of Covid-19 cases.
“We didn’t know the exact reason why such behaviour was observed. We can, however, hypothesis that higher rainfall increases relative humidity in the air thus a greater number of Covid-19 cases can be seen,” the researchers said in the paper. They also computed the impact of UV radiation over Covid-19, which turned out to be negatively correlated to the virus.
“It means that with more UV radiation, a lesser incidence of Covid can be found. Similarly, rainfall has a positive correlation with Covid incidence. Our study included 11 articles that carried out extensive research work on more than 110 country-wide datasets. Thus, we can show that weather can be considered as an important element regarding the correlation with Covid,” the study said.
The meta-analysis can be useful for policymakers to take prior decisions before a possible surge of Covid infections depending on weather forecasting mechanisms. “We urge medical professionals and weather analysts to further investigate the findings of this article to mitigate the pandemic,” the researchers said.
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