Pune: Researchers from the Indian Institute of Tropical Meteorology (IITM) have linked high moisture during the rainy season to an increase in Covid Daily cases in at least three cities – Pune, Delhi and Mumbai.
This finding was published in the International Journal, System and the Environment of the Earth, recently.
Virus particles get media such as water vapor droplets in high moisture conditions to remain suspended in the air for a longer time.
Drier water helps high evaporation levels from droplets contaminated with saliva.
This study examined the impact of meteorological parameters during the summer and the rainy season starting April to September 2020 in cases of Daily Covid in Pune, Delhi, Mumbai and Ahmedabad, each with a different climate and geography.
The researchers noted that the moisture level was strongly correlated with covid infection in Pune surrounded by hills, Delhi dry and Mumbai coastal, but no correlation found in Arid Ahmedabad.
In Pune, the positive correlation is 0.70, in Delhi .50 and in Mumbai .46, but there is no such correlation found in Ahmedabad.
There is no connection found between Covid cases and daily temperatures in one of these cities.
Moisture soared during the rainy season due to high rainfall in Delhi and Pune last year.
Ahmedabad noted relatively less than last year’s rainfall average, therefore there was no correlation.
Therefore, the virus spreads quickly in Pune and Delhi.
However, in Mumbai, which remains very humid throughout the year, a positive correlation between moisture and the spread of Covid is not as much as Pune and Delhi, IITM officials said.
Scientists say this virus moves with respiratory droplets, therefore the relationship between Covid cases with relative / absolute humidity in dry areas such as Pune and Delhi can have serious implications.
Gufran Beig, senior scientist and founding project forecasting systems and air quality research at the Indian Tropical Meteorology Institute, told TII, “Using a sophisticated statistical model to analyze the relationship between various meteorological variables and Daily Covid cases from April to September 2020, this study Finding that the virus does not seem to be sensitive to most weather parameters except moisture, which associations with Covid varies with different climate zones.
“Beig said low summer humidity in dry areas, dry areas showed the effects that could be ignored in Covid cases.
“However, they surged along with the moisture level in Mumbai where the moisture was high.
During high moisture conditions such as in Monsun, Pune and Delhi, which is a dry area, also shows a surge in infection,” he said.
Low moisture levels in the summer in Delhi and Pune driers do not seem to have an impact on the spread of infection.