Journal of Applied Physical Science International

In this paper, we analyzed air-borne pollutants like PM2.5, PM10, NO₂, SO₂, CO and Ozone obtained from twelve air-quality monitoring stations operated by various central and state-pollution control agencies in different parts of India during second wave (March to May’ 2021) of Covid-19 pandemic.  Our results show positive correlations between Covid-19 cases and PM2.5/10 over Delhi (+0.049) and Lucknow (+0.097) of Northern India. Lowest PM2.5 concentrations was observed over Chennai (~19), which was due to lockdown restrictions imposed by Tamilnadu state government. Pearson coefficients of PM2.5, PM10 and NO₂ were observed to be negative for all the three chosen major cities of Southern India, and thereby, indicating that corona pandemic was not affected by air-borne particulates over Southern India. The average PM10 density of Eastern India was estimated to be maximum at Varanasi (~161) and lowest at Kolkatta (~85), however Pearson coefficient, P was fond to be negative for Kolkatta (-0.72). Further, over Western India, pearson coefficients of PM2.5, PM10, NO₂, SO₂ and CO were estimated to be negative for all the three chosen major cities. Ozone was found to have its positive trends at Ahmedabad (+0.32) and negative trends for both Jaipur (-0.044) and Mumbai (-0.017). Student t-test was also applied to test the significance between two independent data sets.