There is a potential link between air pollution and the coronavirus mortality rate in Italy.

That’s the suggestion from Dario Caro, Environmental Scientist from Aarhus University who spoke to ELN about his recent survey regarding the possible connection between high death rates in Lombardia, Northern Italy, and the air pollution there.

Researchers investigated why the region has recorded a mortality rate of up to 12%, while there is a rate of 4.5% in the rest of the country – the team found a probable correlation between air pollution and mortality in two of the worst affected regions in northern Italy.

Mr Caro said: “We know very well inflammatory cytokine is the first step to die from coronavirus. Some can say that from these people living in these areas, the first step is already done. So they have a higher probability of dying at these areas.”

Regarding the possibility of applying the findings of his survey to other major cities such as New York, he said that is not possible at this stage as there are several factors playing different roles in each case – he added: “For example, we compared Lombardia with Wuhan and we noticed that there is a huge difference in the age of the people – in Lombardia, the population is older than people in Wuhan.”