COVID-19 pandemic and its positive impacts on environment: an updated review

In December, 2019 in Wuhan city of China, a novel coronavirus (SARS-CoV-2) has garnered global attention due to its rapid transmission. World Health Organization (WHO) termed the infection as Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) after phylogenic studies with SARS-CoV. The virus causes severe respiratory infections with dry cough, high fever, body ache and fatigue. The virus is primarily transmitted among people through respiratory droplets from COVID-19 infected person. WHO declared this COVID-19 outbreak a pandemic and since February, 2020 affected countries have locked down their cities, industries and restricted the movement of their citizens to minimize the spread of the virus. In spite of the negative aspects of coronavirus on the globe, the coronavirus crises brought a positive impact on the natural environment. Countries where the movement of citizens was seized to stop the spread of coronavirus infection have experienced a noticeable decline in pollution and greenhouse gases emission. Recent research also indicated that this COVID-19-induced lockdown has reduced the environmental pollution drastically worldwide. In this review, we have discussed some important positive impacts of coronavirus on environmental quality by compiling the recently published data from research articles, NASA (National Aeronautics and Space Administration) and ESA (European Space Agency).