Correlation between weather conditions and COVID-19 pandemic in the southeast area of Iran

Abstract The Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) has influenced the live of all people around the world. This study analyzed the relationship between the weather elements (daily temperature, wind speed and humidity) and daily active, recovered and dead cases of covid-19 in Rafsanjan, in the southeast area of Iran. Covid-19 data and meteorological variables were obtained from 29 February 2020 to 20 March 2021 (386 days) from Rafsanjan University of Medical Sciences and Meteorological Organization of Iran, respectively. The results showed that there is a significant inverse association between daily average temperature with the number of daily active cases (r: -0.293, p<0.01), recovered cases (r: -0.301, p<0.01) and dead cases (r: -0.198, p<0.01). With decreasing the average wind speed, the number of daily active cases (r: -0.224, p<0.01), recovered cases (r: -0.232, p<0.01) and dead cases has been increased. A nonsignificant positive correlation between daily humidity average and daily active cases (r:0.033, p=0.518) and recovered cases (r:0.044, p=0.390), and significant positive correlation with the number of daily dead cases (r: 0.254, p<0.01) was observed. Therefore, temperature and wind speed can be considered as affective factors in COVID-19 as an auxiliary solution.