The impact of the COVID-19 lockdown on global air quality: A review

The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) was declared a pandemic by the World Health Organization (WHO) on March 11, 2020. As a preventive measure, the majority of countries adopted partial or complete lockdown to fight the novel coronavirus. The lockdown was considered the most effective tool to break the spread of the coronavirus infection worldwide. Although lockdown damaged national economies, it has given a new dimension and opportunity to reduce environmental contamination, especially air pollution. In this study, we reviewed, analyzed and discussed the available recent literature and highlighted the impact of lockdown on the level of prominent air pollutants and consequent effects on air quality. The levels of air contaminants like nitrogen dioxide (NO₂), sulphur dioxide (SO₂), carbon monoxide (CO), and particulate matter (PM) decreased globally compared to levels in the past few decades. In many megacities of the world, the concentration of PM and NO₂ declined by > 60% during the lockdown period. The air quality index (AQI) also improved substantially throughout the world during the lockdown. Overall, the air quality of many urban areas improved slightly to significantly during the lockdown period. It has been observed that COVID-19 transmission and mortality rate also decreased in correlation to reduced pollution level in many cities.