TITLE:
The Possible Relationship between the Atmospheric Electric Field and High Energy Charged Particles and the COVID-19 Cases in the Central Arabian Peninsula
AUTHORS:
Maghrabi Abdullrahman
KEYWORDS:
Infectious Diseases, Electric Field, Charged Particles, COVID-19
JOURNAL NAME:
Advances in Infectious Diseases,
Vol.11 No.4,
December
10,
2021
ABSTRACT: Background: Since the beginning of the global COVID-19 pandemic, several studies have been carried out to investigate its spread, with a wide range of factors to understand the influence of the factors that contribute to its spread and to reduce the ongoing threat of COVID-19 pandemic. Methods: In this study, the relationships between the Earth’s electric field and cosmic ray charged particles of different energy ranges and the daily confirmed COVID-19 infections in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia have been investigated using non-parametric statistical tests. The data covered the period between 3 April 2020 and 1st August 2021 and were obtained from the King Abdulaziz City for Science and Technology (KACST) CARPET detector, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. The electric fields data were obtained from electric field monitor (EFM) deployed on the rooftop of the KACST laboratory. The data of the daily COVID-19 cases were obtained from the official webpage of the Saudi Arabian Ministry of Health (MOH). Results: The results revealed that that the number of COVID-19 cases is correlated with cosmic ray charged particles and anti-correlated with the Earth’s electric field. Conclusion: While the exact mechanism explaining the influence of Earth’s electric field and cosmic rays variations on the reported number of COVID-19 cases is not yet established, the results presented in this study can add additional knowledge to our understanding of the effects of additional factors on influenza activities.