Climate change, environmental factors, and COVID-19: Current evidence and urgent actions

The novel coronavirus disease(COVID-19)has triggered an international health crisis that began in late 2019.The number of COVID-19 cases globally remains at the highest levels,and variants of the SARS-CoV-2 being reported around the world have caused special concern.The COVID-19 pandemic requires a regular global response.As is the case with other infectious respiratory diseases,COVID-19 may be affected by climatic,meteorological,and environmental factors,including temperature,humidity,and air pollutants.The interactive effects of these factors on population health are complicated.Furthermore,policy responses to COVID-19 have substantially affected socio-economic systems and people’s lifestyles,which in turn had an impact on climate by reducing emissions and population adaptations under the background of climate change,and even further affected the human health.Immediate actions are needed to respond to both climate change and COVID-19,and in turn the climate impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic(Figure 1).