Impacts of short-term lockdown during COVID-19 on air quality in Egypt

COVID-19 is a pandemic disease that is actively spread over the globe in a few months. Most of the Nations took the appropriate measures including lockdown to reduce the risk of spreading and safe human health and life. Egypt took the measures of partial and complete lockdown from 15th March till 30th June 2020. Such short-term lockdown has had a significant impact on the reduction of emissions from transportation, industrial and human activities. This research used multi-data sensors from space to map the changes of air quality over Egypt in the first 6 months from January to June 2020 due to the lockdown and compare with previous years of 2018 and 2019. It is clearly observed that the air quality over the whole country is improved as a result of reducing pollutants emissions, with NO(2) reduced by 45.5%, CO emissions reduced by 46.23%, Ozone concentration decreased by about 61.1%, and AOD reduced by 68.5% compared to the previous 2 years. It is found that the lockdown is an effective mitigation measure against air pollution to improve air quality and reduce the air pollution that creates pressure on the human health and health system. It might be difficult to implement long lockdown, as a mitigation measure, due to its direct impact on social and economic needs. However, we recommend a complete lockdown for 2–3 days (long weekend) every at least 2-3 months, on national and/or global level, which will significantly enhance our air quality and improve the health environment of the planet.