Environmental impact of the covid-19 pandemic: where are we?

Abstract

Towards the end of 2019, the appearance of a new viral infection caused by the new coronavirus SARS-CoV-2, responsible for the acute respiratory disease known as COVID-19, caused a strong impact on health systems and the world economy. Such has been the severity of the disease and its high level of contagion and transmission, which has become responsible for thousands of deaths globally. In this sense, facing what, at the time, the World Health Organization considered a pandemic, led governments to implement drastic measures in order to avoid an increase in the level of infections and deaths. Among these measures were mandatory confinement and the immobilization of people between localities, regions and countries, making it necessary to close borders. In this sense, the objective of this bibliographic review is to establish the status of the impact, negative or positive, of the COVID-19 pandemic on the environment. To do this, a search for scientific articles was carried out using keywords such as “COVID-19” and “environment”. In this context, there have been numerous cases, especially in the environmental aspect, where positive impacts were recorded, such as a decrease in pollution levels; while negative aspects were evident in the economic, health and social spheres. A first evaluation concludes that it is necessary to carry out more exhaustive research to determine how the appearance of this disease has impacted the environmental conditions of the planet.