Do the weather conditions drive the spread of COVID-19? The Case of Greece

The new global pandemic of COVID-19 declared on March 11, 2020, by the World Health Organization, has already caused unprecedented health and socio-economic impacts, worldwide. The second wave of the COVID-19 pandemic has been sweeping the Unites States of America and Europe since late September 2020. The northern countries of Europe (Germany, France, Austria, Finland, Sweden) faced this second wave of the pandemic earlier in September 2020 against other southern countries, such as Greece, where there was a significant increase in cases in late October 2020. To understand the spread of COVID-19 in Greece, from the environmental perspective, we try to examine the effect of air temperature, humidity and wind on the emergence of COVID-19. More specifically, we concern whether warm and wet conditions have a positive effect by decreasing the number of COVID-19 cases, while on the contrary, cold and dry conditions are associated with increasing cases. We apply Pearson correlation analysis and Generalized Linear Models taking as dependent variable the confirmed admissions in intensive care units (ICU) of COVID-19 from the National Public Health Organization and the corresponding air temperature, humidity and wind speed from the Hellenic National Meteorological Service, as independent variables. The analysis concerns Athens and Thessaloniki, the two largest cities in Greece.