IMPACT of COVID-19 PANDEMIC on AIR QUALITY in A TOURISTIC REGION

The rise of the COVID-19 pandemic led governments to impose mobility restrictions to their citizens and companies, having a greater impact on tourism. This can be used as a global-scale opportunity to study the impact of those restrictions on air quality, particularly in tourist sites. Hence, the aim of this work was to evaluate the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on air quality in a touristic region. Air pollution was evaluated in a prominent touristic region in southern Europe (Algarve, Portugal). The concentrations of PM10, NO2, O3 and CO were obtained from four air quality monitoring stations (traffic and background) in two lockdown and two lifting periods. The data collected was compared with historical data (20152019) and with reference limit values in the Portuguese legislation and the World Health Organization (WHO) guidelines. Overall, PM10 reduced in all studied periods and stations, with a higher decrease during the 1st lockdown and lifting (5.30%73.6%) compared to the 2nd periods in the urban traffic and background stations, as well as NO2 (35.8%56.5%), in the urban background station evaluated. O3 diminished in general (until 29.1%), while CO decreased during the 1st lockdown and lifting periods (64.5%80.7%) and increased in the subsequent periods (9.66%65.1%) in the urban traffic station. The percentage of exceedances to the reference limit values both in the legislation and in WHO guidelines mainly decreased or remained equal in all the studied periods when compared with the previous years. Thus, it was concluded that the mobility restrictions imposed during the COVID-19 pandemic contributed to a general reduction of air pollution in tourist sites. Since tourism is an important economic activity, some specific policies were proposed based on those restrictions, considering a sustainable equilibrium between the economy, the environment, and human health. (c) 2021 WIT Press

Impact of COVID-19 Pandemic on Air Quality: A Systematic Review

With the emergence of the COVID-19 pandemic, several governments imposed severe restrictions on socio-economic activities, putting most of the world population into a general lockdown in March 2020. Although scattered, studies on this topic worldwide have rapidly emerged in the literature. Hence, this systematic review aimed to identify and discuss the scientifically validated literature that evaluated the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic and associated restrictions on air quality. Thus, a total of 114 studies that quantified the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on air quality through monitoring were selected from three databases. The most evaluated countries were India and China; all the studies intended to evaluate the impact of the pandemic on air quality, mainly concerning PM10, PM2.5, NO2, O-3, CO, and SO2. Most of them focused on the 1st lockdown, comparing with the pre- and post-lockdown periods and usually in urban areas. Many studies conducted a descriptive analysis, while others complemented it with more advanced statistical analysis. Although using different methodologies, some studies reported a temporary air quality improvement during the lockdown. More studies are still needed, comparing different lockdown and lifting periods and, in other areas, for a definition of better-targeted policies to reduce air pollution

Sustainable policies for air pollution reduction after COVID-19 pandemic: Lessons learnt from the impact of the different lockdown periods on air quality

Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, governments imposed several mobility restrictions which can be used to evaluate their impact on air quality and generate better-targeted policies to improve it. Therefore, this study aimed to define sustainable mitigation measures to reduce air pollution based on quantifying the impacts of the restrictions imposed during the COVID-19 pandemic on air quality in Portugal. Thus, hourly concentrations of PM10, PM2.5, NO2, O-3, CO and SO2 were obtained from the Portuguese Air Quality Monitoring Network. Data was then divided into six periods (2020-2021) and compared with the corresponding historical periods (2015-2019). Furthermore, the satellite data of NO2, CO, and absorbing aerosol index (AAI) from the sentinel-5P TROPOMI was collected to complement the analysis conducted for the monitoring data. Overall, air quality improved in all study periods and areas, except in industrial sites. The satellite data corroborated the results herein achieved and thus validated the real effect of the measures adopted in the country during the pandemic on air quality. Sustainable policies to improve air quality could include remote (or hybrid) work whenever possible as a long-term measure and prohibition of travelling between municipalities when an extraordinary event of high air pollution is predicted or occurs. Other policies should be adopted for industrial areas. Given this, and as the restrictive mobility measures had a strong effect on reducing air pollution, the post-COVID era represents an opportunity for society to rethink future mobility and other emerging policies, that should favour softer and cleaner means of transportation

First report of human Thelazia callipaeda infection in Portugal

The zoonotic parasitic nematode Thelazia callipaeda, also known as the oriental eye worm, is endemic in several European countries, including Portugal. Infections may result in ocular disease in domestic and wild animals as well as humans, with more or less severe manifestations. We report the first human case of ocular thelaziosis by T. callipaeda in Portugal, a country where the parasite had already been found to infect dogs, cats, red foxes, wild rabbits and a beech marten. An 80-year-old patient from east-central Portugal, who had been suffering from tearing for a few years, had whitish filiform fragments removed from the left eye. Polymerase chain reaction of partial cytochrome c oxidase subunit 1 and 18S small subunit rRNA genes followed by bidirectional sequencing and BLAST analysis confirmed T. callipaeda haplotype 1, the only haplotype previously reported in Europe. The endemicity of T. callipaeda in domestic and wild animals in east-central Portugal makes it very likely that infection of the human patient had occurred locally. In east-central and other geographical areas of Portugal, veterinarians and physicians, especially ophthalmologists, should regard T. callipaeda as a cause of ocular pathology in animals and humans. © 2022This work was supported by national funds, through Fundação para a Ciência e Tecnologia (FCT, Portuguese Foundation for Science and Technology), under projects UIDB/CVT/00772/2020 and LA/P/0059/2020, and also projects UIDB/04750/2020 and LA/P/0064/2020