School of Environment, Tsinghua University, 100084, Beijing, China.
School of Environment, Tsinghua University, 100084, Beijing, China.
Environ Res. 2022 Dec;215(Pt 1):114127. doi: 10.1016/j.envres.2022.114127. Epub 2022 Aug 27.
Understanding the relationship between precipitation and SARS-CoV-2 is significant for combating COVID-19 in the wet season. However, the causes for the variation of SARS-CoV-2 transmission intensity after precipitation is unclear. Starting from "the Zhengzhou event," we found that the virus-laden standing water formed after precipitation might trigger some additional routes for SARS-CoV-2 transmission and thus change the transmission intensity of SARS-CoV-2. Then, we developed an interdisciplinary framework to examine whether the health risk related to the virus-laden standing water needs to be a concern. The framework enables the comparison of the instant and lag effects of precipitation on the transmission intensity of SARS-CoV-2 between city clusters with different formation risks of the virus-laden standing water. Based on the city-level data of China between January 01, 2020, and December 31, 2021, we conducted an empirical study. The result showed that in the cities with a high formation risk of the virus-laden standing water, heavy rain increased the instant transmission intensity of SARS-CoV-2 by 6.2% (95%CI: 4.85-10.2%), while in the other cities, precipitation was uninfluential to SARS-CoV-2 transmission, revealing that the health risk of the virus-laden standing water should not be underestimated during the COVID-19 pandemic. To reduce the relevant risk, virus-laden water control and proper disinfection are feasible response strategies.
了解降水与 SARS-CoV-2 之间的关系，对于在雨季抗击 COVID-19 具有重要意义。然而，降水后 SARS-CoV-2 传播强度变化的原因尚不清楚。从“郑州事件”开始，我们发现降水后形成的含病毒死水可能会引发 SARS-CoV-2 传播的一些额外途径，从而改变 SARS-CoV-2 的传播强度。然后，我们开发了一个跨学科框架，以检验与含病毒死水相关的健康风险是否值得关注。该框架可用于比较具有不同含病毒死水形成风险的城市群中降水对 SARS-CoV-2 传播强度的即时和滞后影响。基于 2020 年 1 月 1 日至 2021 年 12 月 31 日期间中国的城市层面数据，我们进行了一项实证研究。结果表明，在含病毒死水形成风险较高的城市，大雨使 SARS-CoV-2 的即时传播强度增加了 6.2%（95%CI：4.85-10.2%），而在其他城市，降水对 SARS-CoV-2 传播没有影响，这表明在 COVID-19 大流行期间，不能低估含病毒死水的健康风险。为了降低相关风险，控制含病毒水和适当消毒是可行的应对策略。
