Background/aim: Air pollution is having a positive impact on the spread of
the SARS-COV-2 virus. The effects of meteorological parameters on the spread
of SARS-COV-2 are a matter of curiosity. The main purpose of this paper is to
determine the association between air quality indexes (PM2.5, PM10, NO2, SO2,
CO, and O3) and weather parameters (temperature, humidity, pressure, dew,
wind speed) with the number of SARS-COV-2 cases, hospitalizations, hospital
discharges. In this paper, we also focused on determining the impact of air
pollution and weather parameters on the number of daily hospitalizations and
daily discharges. Materials and methods: It is gleaned daily cases,
hospitalizations, hospital discharges, meteorological, and air quality data
in Istanbul from Turkey between July 15, 2020, and September 30, 2020. We
performed the Pearson correlation analysis to evaluate the effects of
meteorological parameters and air quality indexes on the variables related to
SARS-COV-2. Results: It is determined a statistically significant positive
relationship between air quality indexes such as CO, SO2, PM2.5, PM10, NO2,
and the number of daily confirmed SARS-COV-2 cases. We also observed a
negative association between weather parameters such as temperature and
pressure and the number of daily confirmed SARS-COV-2 cases. Conclusion: Our
study proposes that high air quality could reduce the number of SARS-COV-2
cases. The empirical findings of this paper might provide key input to
prevent the spread of SARS-COV-2 across Turkey.