WMO COVID-19 Task Team Webinar on MAQ influence

CCOUC Assistant Director Mr Chi Shing Wong represented CCOUC to join the World Meteorological Organization COVID-19 Task Team global Webinar on 12 January 2021 to seek input on the team’s review report regarding the effects of meteorological and air quality (MAQ) factors on COVID-19. Around 100 experts worldwide participated in the Webinar.

The preliminary findings of the task team’s review of the current state of understanding of the MAQ influence include:

A combination of MAQ (temperature, humidity, ultraviolet radiation and air quality) factors’ direct impacts on virus survival, impacts on human body’s resistance to infection, and indirect influence of weather and season via changes in human behavior (e.g. indoor crowding and poor ventilation during winter) may be at work.
Laboratory studies have yielded some evidence that the SARS-CoV-2 survives longer under cold, dry, and low ultraviolet radiation conditions.
There has not yet been any direct, peer-reviewed evidence of air pollution impacts on the transmission of SARS-CoV-2.