Regional Association Between Mean Air Temperature and Case Numbers of Multiple SARS-CoV-2 Lineages Throughout the Pandemic

Overview

Journal Viruses

Publisher MDPI

Specialty Microbiology

Date 2022 Sep 23

PMID 36146720

Authors

Camilla Mattiuzzi

Brandon M Henry

Giuseppe Lippi

Affiliations

Soon will be listed here.

Abstract

The association between mean air temperature and new SARS-CoV-2 case numbers throughout the ongoing coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic was investigated to identify whether diverse SARS-CoV-2 lineages may exhibit diverse environmental behaviors. The number of new COVID-19 daily cases in the province of Verona was obtained from the Veneto Regional Healthcare Service, whilst the mean daily air temperature during the same period was retrieved from the Regional Agency for Ambient Prevention and Protection of Veneto. A significant inverse correlation was found between new COVID-19 daily cases and mean air temperature in Verona up to Omicron BA.1/BA.2 predominance (correlation coefficients between -0.79 and -0.41). The correlation then became positive when the Omicron BA.4/BA.5 lineages were prevalent (r = 0.32). When the median value (and interquartile range; IQR) of new COVID-19 daily cases recorded during the warmer period of the year in Verona (June-July) was compared across the three years of the pandemic, a gradual increase could be seen over time, from 1 (IQR, 0-2) in 2020, to 22 (IQR, 11-113) in 2021, up to 890 (IQR, 343-1345) in 2022. These results suggest that measures for preventing SARS-CoV-2 infection should not be completely abandoned during the warmer periods of the year.

Citing Articles

Multisite community-scale monitoring of respiratory and enteric viruses in the effluent of a nursing home and in the inlet of the local wastewater treatment plant.

Manoha C, Dequiedt A, Thery L, Marotel M, Pez F, Vouillon B Appl Environ Microbiol. 2024; 90(11):e0115824.

PMID: 39387558 PMC: 11577779. DOI: 10.1128/aem.01158-24.

Pooled analysis of diagnostic performance of the instrument-read Quidel Sofia SARS antigen Fluorescent Immunoassay (FIA).

Lippi G, Henry B, Plebani M EJIFCC. 2023; 34(2):123-141.

PMID: 37455844 PMC: 10349315.

The relative prevalence of the Omicron variant within SARS-CoV-2 infected cohorts in different countries: A systematic review.

Sarkar A, Omar S, Alshareef A, Fanous K, Sarker S, Alroobi H Hum Vaccin Immunother. 2023; 19(1):2212568.

PMID: 37254497 PMC: 10234134. DOI: 10.1080/21645515.2023.2212568.

A Simple Epidemiologic Model for Predicting Impaired Neutralization of New SARS-CoV-2 Variants.

Lippi G, Henry B, Plebani M Vaccines (Basel). 2023; 11(1).

PMID: 36679973 PMC: 9863154. DOI: 10.3390/vaccines11010128.

References

Nicastro F, Sironi G, Antonello E, Bianco A, Biasin M, Brucato J . Solar UV-B/A radiation is highly effective in inactivating SARS-CoV-2. Sci Rep. 2021; 11(1):14805. PMC: 8292397. DOI: 10.1038/s41598-021-94417-9. View

Hirose R, Itoh Y, Ikegaya H, Miyazaki H, Watanabe N, Yoshida T . Differences in environmental stability among SARS-CoV-2 variants of concern: both omicron BA.1 and BA.2 have higher stability. Clin Microbiol Infect. 2022; 28(11):1486-1491. PMC: 9144845. DOI: 10.1016/j.cmi.2022.05.020. View

Han Y, Zhao W, Pereira P . Global COVID-19 pandemic trends and their relationship with meteorological variables, air pollutants and socioeconomic aspects. Environ Res. 2021; 204(Pt C):112249. PMC: 8563087. DOI: 10.1016/j.envres.2021.112249. View

Chien L, Chen L, Lin R . Lagged meteorological impacts on COVID-19 incidence among high-risk counties in the United States-a spatiotemporal analysis. J Expo Sci Environ Epidemiol. 2021; 32(5):774-781. PMC: 8247626. DOI: 10.1038/s41370-021-00356-y. View

Lin S, Luo M, Walker R, Liu X, Hwang S, Chinery R . Extreme high temperatures and hospital admissions for respiratory and cardiovascular diseases. Epidemiology. 2009; 20(5):738-46. DOI: 10.1097/EDE.0b013e3181ad5522. View

Gandhi M, Yokoe D, Havlir D . Asymptomatic Transmission, the Achilles' Heel of Current Strategies to Control Covid-19. N Engl J Med. 2020; 382(22):2158-2160. PMC: 7200054. DOI: 10.1056/NEJMe2009758. View

Guo L, Yang Z, Zhang L, Wang S, Bai T, Xiang Y . Systematic review of the effects of environmental factors on virus inactivation: implications for coronavirus disease 2019. Int J Environ Sci Technol (Tehran). 2021; 18(9):2865-2878. PMC: 8286163. DOI: 10.1007/s13762-021-03495-9. View

Martins-Filho P . Relationship between population density and COVID-19 incidence and mortality estimates: A county-level analysis. J Infect Public Health. 2021; 14(8):1087-1088. PMC: 8253654. DOI: 10.1016/j.jiph.2021.06.018. View

Lippi G, Mattiuzzi C, Henry B . Updated picture of SARS-CoV-2 variants and mutations. Diagnosis (Berl). 2021; 9(1):11-17. DOI: 10.1515/dx-2021-0149. View

10.

Chin A, Lai A, Peiris M, Poon L . Increased Stability of SARS-CoV-2 Omicron Variant over Ancestral Strain. Emerg Infect Dis. 2022; 28(7):1515-1517. PMC: 9239870. DOI: 10.3201/eid2807.220428. View

11.

Park S, Lee Y, Michelow I, Choe Y . Global Seasonality of Human Coronaviruses: A Systematic Review. Open Forum Infect Dis. 2020; 7(11):ofaa443. PMC: 7651300. DOI: 10.1093/ofid/ofaa443. View

12.

Abdelghany T, Ganash M, Bakri M, Qanash H, Al-Rajhi A, Elhussieny N . SARS-CoV-2, the other face to SARS-CoV and MERS-CoV: Future predictions. Biomed J. 2021; 44(1):86-93. PMC: 7603957. DOI: 10.1016/j.bj.2020.10.008. View

13.

Callaway E . What Omicron's BA.4 and BA.5 variants mean for the pandemic. Nature. 2022; 606(7916):848-849. DOI: 10.1038/d41586-022-01730-y. View

14.

Sampath S, Khedr A, Qamar S, Tekin A, Singh R, Green R . Pandemics Throughout the History. Cureus. 2021; 13(9):e18136. PMC: 8525686. DOI: 10.7759/cureus.18136. View

15.

Hewins B, Richardson C, Rubino S, Kelvin A, Ostadgavahi A, Kelvin D . Molecular mechanisms responsible for SARS-CoV-2 antibody waning and vaccine escape in Omicron sublineages BA.4 and BA.5. J Infect Dev Ctries. 2022; 16(7):1122-1125. DOI: 10.3855/jidc.17010. View

16.

Lembo R, Landoni G, Cianfanelli L, Frontera A . Air pollutants and SARS-CoV-2 in 33 European countries. Acta Biomed. 2021; 92(1):e2021166. PMC: 7975964. DOI: 10.23750/abm.v92i1.11155. View

17.

Shi Q, Dorling D, Cao G, Liu T . Changes in population movement make COVID-19 spread differently from SARS. Soc Sci Med. 2020; 255:113036. PMC: 7228706. DOI: 10.1016/j.socscimed.2020.113036. View

18.

Ulloa S, Bravo C, Ramirez E, Fasce R, Fernandez J . Inactivation of SARS-CoV-2 isolates from lineages B.1.1.7 (Alpha), P.1 (Gamma) and B.1.110 by heating and UV irradiation. J Virol Methods. 2021; 295:114216. PMC: 8219296. DOI: 10.1016/j.jviromet.2021.114216. View

19.

Reicher S, Michie S, West R . The UK government's "personal responsibility" policy for covid is hypocritical and unsustainable. BMJ. 2022; 378:o1903. DOI: 10.1136/bmj.o1903. View

20.

Wu Z, Harrich D, Li Z, Hu D, Li D . The unique features of SARS-CoV-2 transmission: Comparison with SARS-CoV, MERS-CoV and 2009 H1N1 pandemic influenza virus. Rev Med Virol. 2020; 31(2):e2171. PMC: 7537046. DOI: 10.1002/rmv.2171. View