Water, Sanitation, Hygiene (WASH) or others? - a global analysis on determinants of Covid-19 pandemic
AbstractCoronavirus (SARS Covid-19) has become a global public health concern due to its unpredictable nature and lack of adequate pre-existing conditions. Achievement of WASH services is being acknowledged as indispensable in safeguarding health. However, on a global scale, it is currently not clear whether deprivation or non-obtainability of which of the factors are closely related to Covid-19 dynamics and up to which degree. We have analysed 6 months’ data related to five Covid-19 indicators for most of the countries in the world with three groups of indicators of WASH, socio-economic factors and mobility & stringency. Four successive steps were followed to carry out the analysis: (a) identification of relevant key explanatory variables of Covid-19, (b) identification of indicators (n=103) for other 5 sub-groups of factors (viz. WASH, economy, health, society, mobility & stringency) through literature review, (c) utilizing Spearman’s rank-order correlation for measuring the association of the possible explanatory variables with those of Covid-19 (of spatial nature), and then (d) continuing the same for 6 consecutive months (from March to August 2020) until we get an almost unchanging trend. We have found a strong positive correlation between lesser effects (i.e. either less confirmed case or higher recovery rate) of Covid-19 and better access to WASH as well as socioeconomic factors throughout this time for a significant amount of the indicators. Since a handful of research is available to discuss the association between Covid-19 with other probable determinants along with the nature and degree of their relationship, this study should be perceived as an expanded view on the complexities of Covid-19 interrelationships towards understanding determinants of Covid-19 dynamics, which could help to shape an agenda for research into some unanswered questions.