Meteorological variables associations and the occurrence of covid-19 in the city of São Paulo, Brazil
Several studies evaluate the association between meteorological variables and cases of respiratory diseases, such as acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) and influenza. Since the emergence of the new coronavirus (SARS-CoV-2), researchers from all over the world have joined forces to study the influence of demographic, anthropogenic and climatic aspects on the incidence of new cases of the disease. According to this, the objective of this study is to present a preliminary assessment of the associations between confirmed cases and deaths caused by the disease COVID-19, in the first days of the contamination in the city of São Paulo-Brazil, with the meteorological variables temperature, relative humidity, atmospheric pressure, and wind speed. Data on the daily numbers of contamination cases and deaths from COVID-19 in addition to meteorological variables were collected from February 26, 2020, to April 6, 2020. Associations were measured using Spearman's correlation coefficient and daily incidence rates (IRR), with their 95% confidence intervals (CI), for each meteorological factor was estimated using the generalized linear regression model with a negative binomial distribution. It was observed temperature and relative humidity are important variables to identify meteorological conditions associated with the number of deaths and contamination by the COVID-19. Extreme events may be related to an increase in the daily numbers of new cases and deaths at the beginning of contamination in the city of São Paulo.