Association between temperature, humidity, and COVID-19 outbreaks in Bangladesh

Syed Emdadul Haque; Mosiur Rahman

doi:10.1016/j.envsci.2020.08.012

Association between temperature, humidity, and COVID-19 outbreaks in Bangladesh

Environ Sci Policy. 2020 Dec:114:253-255. doi: 10.1016/j.envsci.2020.08.012. Epub 2020 Aug 25.

Authors

Syed Emdadul Haque¹, Mosiur Rahman²

Affiliations

¹ Department of Research and Training, UChicago Research Bangladesh, Dhaka, Bangladesh.
² Department of Population Science and Human Resource Development, University of Rajshahi, Rajshahi 6205, Bangladesh.

Abstract

This study aimed to determine the association between average temperature and humidity with COVID-19 pandemic in Bangladesh. This study included 9,455 confirmed cases during the observation period (March 08, 2020 to May 03, 2020). The peak spread of COVID-19 occurred at an average temperature of 26 °C. We find, under a linear regression framework, high temperature and high humidity significantly reduce the transmission of COVID-19, respectively. It indicates that the arrival of summer and rainy season in Bangladesh can effectively reduce the transmission of the COVID-19. However, it is unlikely that the COVID-19 pandemic diminishes by summer since Bangladesh still have a high coronavirus transmission. Therefore, other public health interventions such as social distancing are still important for blocking the COVID-19 transmission.

Keywords: Bangladesh; COVID-19; Coronavirus; Humidity; Temperature.