In early October, severe haze occurred in Indian cities, including New Delhi, with low Street visibility. Materials and pictures

In early October, air quality in the Indian capital, New Delhi, began to deteriorate as usual. The air quality index of the three regions in New Delhi is in the "poor" level. According to the latest report of the press trust of India, the New Delhi city government has launched a "anti pollution war" to control air pollution by burying holes and closely monitoring construction sites.

At present, the New Delhi municipal government stipulates that construction sites with an area of more than 20000 square meters must be equipped with anti fog guns. The environmental department has set up 14 inspection teams to investigate pollution sources. In addition, the New Delhi city government has decided to spend 200 million rupees (about 18 million yuan) to build an air purification tower in the city center, which is expected to be completed in 10 months.

■ will air pollution aggravate the current epidemic situation in India?

Winter is often the most polluted period in India. Novel coronavirus pneumonia is spreading rapidly in India, but many experts believe that air pollution or aggravating the epidemic is increasing. India has 7.23 million confirmed cases and 110000 deaths, according to data released on October 14.

The reporter interviewed Peng Yingdeng, a researcher at the national urban environmental pollution control technology research center, on relevant issues. He told reporters: "at present, there are many ways of epidemic transmission, among which, some are transmitted by aerosol. As experts from the national health and Health Commission, one of the indicators of health city assessment is the city's control of "vectors". "Vector" refers to the media of virus transmission, including aerosols, flies and mosquitoes. Because the air quality in India is not optimistic at present, it is possible that the virus carrying "vector" will increase the transmission probability. Therefore, from this perspective, air pollution will aggravate the spread of the epidemic

Randeep guleria, director of AIIMS, agrees. "Studies from China and Europe have shown that even if the PM2.5 level is only slightly increased, it can lead to a surge of at least 8% - 9% in new crown cases."

In addition, guleria added that air pollution is likely to cause lung inflammation, and the new coronavirus mainly affects the lungs. During this period, severe NCV infection is likely to occur, especially in the Ganges plain, where pollution is more serious.

Recently, a study in the international scientific journal Environmental Pollution expressed the same view. An environmental scientist from Aarhus University in Denmark and two medical professors from Siena University in Italy have found that the high mortality rate in Italy may be related to the local air pollution level.

The study points out that northern Italy is a heavy industrial area. For example, the automobile manufacturing industry is concentrated in Turin in the north, and the air pollution is very serious. The central and southern regions are mainly light industry and agriculture, with light air pollution, such as Sicily and Sardinia. According to available data novel coronavirus pneumonia in northern Italy is 12%, and mortality in other regions is only 4.5%.

Most experts believe that when the air quality is poor, people are more likely to suffer from respiratory or lung diseases, which may make them more susceptible to new coronavirus infection. Therefore, as one of the countries with severe epidemic situation in the world, the situation in India is not optimistic.

Experts suggest that the novel coronavirus pneumonia and air pollution can be coordinated.

There are many reasons for the serious air pollution in India, such as smoke from burning straw in rural areas, traffic exhaust gas, coal smoke, construction dust and exhaust gas from factories in cities. India's annual winter pollutant emissions increase, coupled with low temperature and windless weather is not conducive to atmospheric diffusion, winter air quality is often very bad.

Faced with the double pressure of increasing epidemic situation and coming pollution season, how can India find a breakthrough? Peng Yingdeng gave advice: "from the current point of view, we can take some emergency measures." "There is a strong correlation between air pollution and the epidemic," he said. As we often mentioned, PM2.5 and ozone pollution control should be coordinated. For India, emergency measures should be taken to mitigate air pollution to achieve synergy. The government plans to build air purification tower, set up inspection team and install anti fogging gun. These measures are advisable, but at the same time, efforts should be made to reduce emission at source. For example, we should guide the public to avoid gathering, reduce going out of the house, reduce the behavior of burning straw by farmers, and require polluting enterprises to stop production. These measures will help to control the epidemic situation and air quality

"Our surveillance data indicate that there are two epidemic peaks in India. One is the monsoon season, the other is in winter. The novel coronavirus pneumonia novel coronavirus pneumonia is similar to influenza and is also a respiratory viral infection. Guleria therefore does not rule out a sharp increase in the number of new crown pneumonia cases in India this winter. But according to existing studies, if we strictly follow the three epidemic prevention regulations - wearing masks, keeping social distance and cleaning hands - we can reduce the number of cases by 30% - 40%

At present, the pressure of the Indian government not only stems from air pollution, but also because of the soaring number of confirmed cases and the lack of medical resources, making the prevention and control of the epidemic particularly difficult. On weekdays, 9 hours of oxygen tank can be used, and only 6 hours can be used for patients with new crown. India's special

From the novel coronavirus pneumonia case to the cumulative first confirmed 1 million, India took 167 days, from 1 million to 3 million for 37 days, from 5 million to 7 million, with 25 days. The number is still rising, clean oxygen for many patients, but increasingly unattainable.

"Next month we will have the biggest festival in India, Diwali. Festive festive atmosphere often makes people relax their vigilance, when gathering and shopping behavior may lead to a wide range of virus transmission. Therefore, when celebrating the festival this year, the government should make full preparations to guide the public not to gather and less to gather, and evacuate the flow of people in hot spots, otherwise the air pollution and the spread of the epidemic may be further aggravated. " Guleria said.

Source: China Environment News