Saha Lala, Kumar Amit, Kumar Sanjeev, Korstad John, Srivastava Sudhakar, Bauddh Kuldeep
Department of Environmental Sciences, Central University of Jharkhand, Ranchi, 835205 India.
Department of Botany, Lucknow University, Lucknow, 226007 India.
Environ Sustain (Singap). 2022;5(1):5-23. doi: 10.1007/s42398-021-00213-6. Epub 2022 Feb 7.
The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) was declared a pandemic by the World Health Organization (WHO) on March 11, 2020. As a preventive measure, the majority of countries adopted partial or complete lockdown to fight the novel coronavirus. The lockdown was considered the most effective tool to break the spread of the coronavirus infection worldwide. Although lockdown damaged national economies, it has given a new dimension and opportunity to reduce environmental contamination, especially air pollution. In this study, we reviewed, analyzed and discussed the available recent literature and highlighted the impact of lockdown on the level of prominent air pollutants and consequent effects on air quality. The levels of air contaminants like nitrogen dioxide (NO), sulphur dioxide (SO), carbon monoxide (CO), and particulate matter (PM) decreased globally compared to levels in the past few decades. In many megacities of the world, the concentration of PM and NO declined by > 60% during the lockdown period. The air quality index (AQI) also improved substantially throughout the world during the lockdown. Overall, the air quality of many urban areas improved slightly to significantly during the lockdown period. It has been observed that COVID-19 transmission and mortality rate also decreased in correlation to reduced pollution level in many cities.
2020年3月11日，世界卫生组织（WHO）宣布2019冠状病毒病（COVID-19）为大流行病。作为一项预防措施，大多数国家采取了部分或全面封锁措施来抗击新型冠状病毒。封锁被认为是打破冠状病毒在全球传播的最有效工具。尽管封锁损害了国家经济，但它为减少环境污染，尤其是空气污染带来了新的契机。在本研究中，我们回顾、分析并讨论了近期的相关文献，强调了封锁对主要空气污染物水平的影响以及对空气质量的后续影响。与过去几十年相比，全球范围内二氧化氮（NO）、二氧化硫（SO）、一氧化碳（CO）和颗粒物（PM）等空气污染物的水平有所下降。在世界许多大城市，封锁期间PM和NO的浓度下降了60%以上。封锁期间，全球空气质量指数（AQI）也大幅改善。总体而言，许多城市地区在封锁期间空气质量有轻微到显著的改善。据观察，在许多城市，COVID-19的传播和死亡率也随着污染水平的降低而下降。
