Linkages between exposure to greenness and COVID-19 mortality: An area-level analysis in India.

Ankit Sikarwar , National Institute for Demographic Studies (INED)
Ritu Rani , International Institute For Population Sciences
Géraldine Duthé , Institut National d'Études Démographiques (INED)
Valerie Golaz, INED

India has experienced a colossal death toll due to novel coronavirus disease-2019 (COVID-19). Scientific discussion is emerging that environmental factors may affect the COVID-19 susceptibility and mortality. Exposure to greenness is associated with improved immunity, enhanced respiratory functions and better mental health. Our objective was to check if better district-level greenness exposure is associated with a lower risk of COVID-19 mortality. Greenness exposure was estimated for 640 Indian districts using Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI) derived from Oceansat-2 Ocean Color Monitor (OCM2) Global Area Coverage (GAC) sensor from January to March 2019. Cumulative COVID-19 death counts till May 1, 2021 were obtained from covid19india.org open data portal. We used the Negative Binomial Regression model adjusted for particulate matter (PM2.5), temperature, population density, education, media exposure and proportion of elderly population. COVID-19 mortality was negatively associated with greenness quantiles and the strength of the association was increasing with the quantiles.

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 Presented in Session P1. Postercafe