The Role of Climate in the Spread of COVID-19 in Different Latitudes across the World

Most transmittable diseases appear in a specific season and the effect of climate on COVID-19 is of special interest. This study aimed to investigate the relationship between climatic variables and the R0 of COVID-19 cases in a list of areas in different latitudes around the world. The daily confirmed cases of COVID-19 and climatic data of each area per day from January 2020 to March 2021 were utilized in the study. The GWR and MLR methods were used to identify the relationship between the R0 of COVID-19 cases and climatic variables. The MLR results showed a significant (p-value < 0.05) weak inverse relationship between the R0 of COVID-19 cases and wind speed, but a positive significant (p-value < 0.01) relationship with precipitation. This implies that lower COVID-19 cases were recorded with high wind speed and low precipitation. Based on GWR, the R0 of COVID-19 infection assessed against air temperature, rh, and precipitation was found to be statistically significant using the Monte Carlo p-value test, and the effect of climatic variables on COVID-19 infection appears to vary geographically. However, besides climatic variables, many socioeconomic factors could influence the virus’s transmission and will need to be considered in future studies.