Spatiotemporal trends of selected air quality parameters during force lockdown and its relationship to COVID-19 positive cases in Bangladesh

Worldwide improved air quality in different cities is reported influenced by lockdown came in force due to COVID-19 pandemic; however, as expected, such changes might have been different in different places. And what is still not very clear whether air quality pollutants have some link to account COVID-19 positive cases and death tolls. This study aims to evaluate the spatiotemporal variability of air pollutants and their relationship to COVID-19 positive cases in major cities in Bangladesh. The relevant data of air pollutants and COVID-19 positive cases are collected, analyzed, discussed for lockdown period of 26 March to 26 April 2020 in comparison to data for same period averaging over 2013 to 2019 for eight major cities in Bangladesh. To characterize air pollutants affected by lockdown, trend and rate of changes were carried out using Mann-Kandle and Sen's slope methods, while spatial variability across the cities was done using ArcGIS and statistics within ArcGIS. The substantial reduction of mean concentrations in the range of 30–65%, 20–80%, 30 - 80%, 65 - 90% and 75 - 90% across the cities is found during lockdown compared to typical mean in previous years for the PM(2.5), PM(10), SO(2), CO, and NO(2) concentrations in air. Among the cities studied, it is seen that relatively lesser reduction in Dhaka, Gazipur and Narayanganj and moderate reduction in Chittagong, Rajshahi, Khulna and Barisal, while significantly bigger reduction in Sylhet influenced by the city attributes and climatic variabilities. Among all the pollutants studied, the increasing trends of NO(2) and CO in Dhaka, Gazipur and Narayanganj are unexpected even in lockdown pointing the effectiveness of lockdown management. Correlation among the air pollutants and confirmed COVID-19 cases across the cities depict foggy relationship, while PCA integrated over the cities revealed association with gaseous pollutants pointing stronger effects of NO(2). This relationship illustrates air pollution health effects may increase vulnerability to COVID-19 cases.