The researchers said the blockade order because Covid-19 in China reduced air pollution, could save 50,000-70,000 lives.

"The reduction in air pollution in China due to the disruption is likely to save 20 times the number of deaths from nCoV infection in the country," said Marshall Burke, assistant professor at the University's Department of Earth Systems Science. Stanford University, USA, on March 17, published on G-Feed, a website specializing in researching the relationship between society and environment.

Burke says the drastic measures against the Chinese government's Covid-19 have significantly reduced air pollution. He said better air quality could have saved about 50,000 to 75,000 people from the risk of premature death.

The link between air pollution and premature death has been fully confirmed. A 30-year study of 652 cities in 24 countries and regions on 6 continents found that: The higher the level of pollution, the more people are at risk of premature death.

The World Health Organization (WHO) estimates that about 7 million people die each year from exposure to fine dust particles in polluted air. China has made some progress in addressing pollution, but its air quality remains low when compared globally.

According to China's Ministry of Ecology and Environment, the average number of "good air quality days" in Hubei province, the global Covid-19 center, increased by 21.5% in February over the same period. last year. Satellite images released by NASA and the European Space Agency also show that emissions from factories in major Chinese cities have dropped significantly in the past two months.

China has made significant progress in improving air quality in recent years. A study in 2019 showed that pollution levels have dropped significantly across China from 2013 to 2017. Beijing has also not been listed as one of the 100 most polluted cities in Asia in recent years, with Pollution levels are lower than 10%, from 2017 to 2018, according to reports from Greenpeace and AirVisual.

Burke focuses on the impact of lower PM2.5 concentrations, fine particles of microscopic size, which can be dangerous when entering the human body.

Based on actual pollution data from four cities in China from 2016 to 2019, he calculated the pollution reduction to be between 15 and 18 micrograms per cubic meter of air. To avoid overestimation, Burke then rounded the reduction to 10 micrograms per cubic meter of air and suggested that only people living in urban areas would benefit from cleaner air.

Burke also explores existing data showing the health benefits of cleaner air quality in China. Since the 2008 Beijing Olympics, Chinese authorities have imposed strict pollution control measures. At that time, NASA also observed that the level of pollution decreased significantly in this country.

The scientists analyzed the impact of these measures and found that the number of deaths in children under 5 and adults over 70 has dropped significantly. The study found that the monthly mortality rates for children under 5 and people over 70 increased by about 2.9% and 1.4% respectively when PM.2.5 concentration increased by 1 micrograms per cubic meter of air.

Based on calculations on the same number of newspapers, Burke concluded that the air quality was better in the past two months due to a blockade because Covid-19 in China saved about 1,400-4,000 children under 5 and 51,700. - 73,000 people over 70 years old in this country.

He added that while cleaner air could save lives, the disruption by Covid-19 could also cause many deaths not directly related to nCoV infection such as difficulty accessing the epidemic. medical services during an outbreak.

"Is pandemic good for health? Not at all," Burke said. "Instead, it shows how the economy operates when there hasn't been a great trade-offs with health. We only realize this when something happens."

Covid-19 has appeared in 165 countries and territories, causing more than 190,000 people to be infected, and more than 7,900 deaths. China currently records more than 80,000 cases, of which more than 3,200 die.