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Cleaner air around the world-positive environmental aspect of Covid-19(Thematic)

by Cassie Kenny | 19-05-2020 04:06


The Indian capital New Delhi -- which frequently tops the world's most polluted city lists -- saw a 60% reduction in PM2.5 levels from March 23 to April 13 from the same period in 2019.Both New Delhi and the country's commercial center Mumbai experienced their best March air quality on record in 2020.During the initial three-week lockdown period, the number of hours rated as "unhealthy" in New Delhi dropped from 68% in 2019 to 17% in 2020.
On March 25, India placed its entire 1.3 billion population into lockdown, closing factories, markets, shops, places of worship and suspending most public transport services. The world's largest lockdown was then extended to May 3.
India is one of the world's most-polluted countries and an average resident is exposed to air pollution that exceeds the World Health Organization's target for annual PM2.5 exposure by more than 500%.
Meanwhile, the South Korean capital Seoul saw a 54% drop in PM2.5 levels from February 26 to March 18 from the previous year.
South Korea's air quality ranks among the worst of Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) countries, with some of the highest levels of particulate matter pollution. Last year in March, the government declared air pollution a "social disaster."
In February, South Korea had one of the largest coronavirus outbreaks outside mainland China but aggressive testing and contact tracing methods have brought cases there under control.
And the Chinese city of Wuhan, where the deadly virus was first identified, saw a 44% reduction in air pollution levels from February 26 to March 18 from the same period last year.
The city of 11 million people in central China's Hubei province was the first city to impose a complete shutdown after Chinese authorities struggled to contain the spread of the coronavirus -- an unprecedented move at the time.
After 75 days those restrictions began to be lifted on April 8 -- a milestone in China's fight against Covid-19 as the country reported nearly zero new local infections.
Over the course of Wuhan's 10-week lockdown, the city experienced its cleanest air quality on record for the months of February and March. The average concentration of PM2.5 plunged from 63.2 and 43.9 micrograms per cubic meter in February and March 2019 respectively, to 36.8 and 32.9 in the same months this year. The World Health Organization considers anything above 25 to be unsafe.
Elsewhere, other major cities experienced cleaner air. Los Angeles saw its longest stretch of clean air on record, over 18 days from March 7 to 28. PM2.5 concentration levels were down by 31% from the same time last year, and down 51% from the average of the previous four years.And in Europe, London and Madrid both experienced reductions in their PM2.5 compared to 2019 during their lockdown periods.
Reference :
CNN. COM
CNN's Rebecca Wright contributed reporting.