AIR POLLUTANTS AS A SIGNIFICANT PREDICTOR OF SARS-CoV-2 TRANSMISSION IN THE NATIONAL CAPITAL REGION (DELHI NCR)

Abstract

The continuous rise in the cases of the COVID-19 virus has created a challenging situation for the public health system of India. The cities with higher populations and poor air quality have been hard hit by coronavirus and fatality rates when the positivity rate increased during each wave. This study aims to examine the relation to whether the criteria air pollutants have promoted the spread of COVID-19 in Delhi NCR by regularizing the issue of multicollinearity among air pollutants. It was hypothesized that criteria air pollutants would positively predict the spread of the coronavirus during the first wave (September 01, 2020 – December 11, 2020), the second wave (April 01, 2021 – May 22, 2021), and the third wave (January 01, 2022 – January 30, 2022) in the 25 most polluted districts of Delhi NCR. Elastic net-applied regularization was used in model exploration and coefficient estimation using EVIEWS 12 for testing of hypothesis. It was found that throughout each wave, PM2.5 was among the most significant predictor of COVID-19 transmission in all districts of Delhi NCR. This research explains the link between air pollutants and daily new corona case instances or how they individually contribute to the virus's transmission. Furthermore, exposure to areas with poor air quality may enhance the susceptibility and negatively impact the diagnosis of patients suffering from coronavirus.