Impact of meteorological factors and population density on COVID-19 pandemic in Saudi Arabia.

Transmission and increase in cases and fatalities of coronavirus disease-2019 (COVID-19) are significantly influenced by the parameters of weather, human activities and population factors. However, study gap on the seasonality of COVID-19 and impact of environmental factors on the pandemic in Saudi Arabia is present. The main aim of the study is to evaluate the impact of environment on the COVID-19 pandemic. Data were analyzed from January 2020 to July 2021. The generalized estimating equation (GEE) was used to determine the effect of environmental variables on longitudinal outcomes. Spearman's rank correlation coefficient ( r _s ) was used to analyze the impact of different parameters on the outcome of the pandemic. Multiple sequence alignment was performed by using ClustalW. Vaccination and fatalities ( r _s  = -0.85) had the highest association followed by vaccination with cases ( r _s  = -0.81) and population density with the fatalities ( r _s  = 0.71). The growth rate had the highest correlation with sun hours ( r _s  = -0.63). Isolates from variant of concern alpha and beta were detected. Most of the reference sequences in Saudi Arabia were closely related with B.1.427/429 variant. Clade GH (54%) was the most prevalent followed by O (27%), GR (9%), G (6%), and S (4%), respectively. Male to female patient ratio was 1.4:1. About 95% fatality and hospitalization were reported in patients aged >60 years. This study will create a comprehensive insight of the interaction of environmental factors and the pandemic and add knowledge on seasonality of COVID-19 in Saudi Arabia.
Competing Interests: The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper.
(© 2022 The Author(s).)