Seasonal correlation of meteorological parameters and PM2.5 with the COVID-19 confirmed cases and deaths in Baghdad, Iraq

The COVID-19 pandemic was a serious global health emergency in 2020 and 2021. This study an-alyzed the seasonal association of weekly averages of meteorological parameters, such as wind speed, solar radiation, temperature, relative humidity, and air pollutant PM2.5, with confirmed COVID-19 cases and deaths in Baghdad, Iraq, a major megacity of the Middle East, for the period June 2020 to August 2021. Spearman and Kendall correlation coefficients were used to investi-gate the association. The results showed that wind speed, air temperature, and solar radiation have positive and strong correlations with the confirmed cases and deaths in the cold season (au-tumn and winter 2020-2021). The total COVID-19 cases negatively correlated with relative hu-midity but were not significant in all seasons. Besides, PM2.5 strongly correlated with COVID-19 confirmed cases for the summer of 2020. The death distribution by age group showed the highest deaths for those aged 60-69. The highest number of deaths was 41% in the summer of 2020. The study provided useful information about the COVID-19 health emergency and meteorological pa-rameters, which can be used for future health disaster planning, adopting prevention strategies and providing healthcare procedures to protect against future infraction transmission.