Sains Malaysiana 50(3)(2021): 879-887

http://doi.org/10.17576/jsm-2021-5003-28

Association between Climatic Conditions, Population Density and COVID-19 in Indonesia

(Perkaitan antara Keadaan Iklim, Kepadatan Penduduk dan COVID-19 di Indonesia)

R. AZIZAH¹*, SANTI MARTINI¹, LILIS SULISTYORINI¹, MAHMUDAH¹, ADITYA SUKMA PAWITRA1, DIDIK BUDIJANTO², STEFANNY SURYA NAGARI¹, CENDANA FITRAHANJANI¹, FAIRUZ HANIYAH RAMADHANI¹ & MOHD. TALIB LATIF^1,3

¹Faculty of Public Health, Universitas Airlangga, Surabaya, Indonesia

²The Ministry of Health of the Republic of Indonesia, Jakarta Selatan, 12950 Jakarta, Indonesia

³Faculty of Science and Technology, Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia, 43600 UKM Bangi, Selangor Darul Ehsan, Malaysia

Received: 5 November 2020/Accepted: 17 December 2020

ABSTRACT

The first emergence of Corona Virus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) confirmed cases found in Wuhan, China, has become a global crisis. At least 177 countries have been affected over 43,000,000 confirmed cases of corona positive and more than one million deaths until October 27th, 2020. Recent research has analyzed any possible factors causing the COVID-19 spreads were climate factors and population density. Indonesia was a tropical region known as the high-populated country in the World, with a 52.9% area with a high mean air temperature and over 267.7 million populations. Our study aims to analyze the correlation between climate, population density, and COVID-19 in Indonesia. We used the K-means cluster method and Fisher’s exact test to determine climatic conditions, population density, and COVID-19 clusters and study the correlation. Our research found that there is a correlation between climatic conditions and population density with COVID-19 (p: 0,034; p:0,004). Warmer climate conditions and densely populated regions contributed to the risen COVID-19 transmission in Indonesia. These are highlighted by the evidence of the top six provinces with highest COVID-19 cases are province classified in warmer climatic conditions (high air temperature, low rainfall, and humidity) and a fairly-dense to densely populated region.

Keywords:  Climatic conditions; COVID-19; population density

ABSTRAK

Kemunculan pertama Penyakit Virus Corona 2019 (COVID-19) mengesahkan kes yang dijumpai di Wuhan, China, telah menjadi krisis global. Sekurang-kurangnya 177 negara telah dijangkiti dengan lebih 43,000,000 kes yang disahkan positif korona dan lebih daripada satu juta kematian sehingga 27 Oktober 2020. Penyelidikan terkini telah menganalisis faktor kemungkinan yang menyebabkan penyebaran COVID-19 iaitu faktor iklim dan kepadatan penduduk. Indonesia adalah wilayah tropik yang terkenal sebagai negara berpopulasi tinggi di dunia dengan luas 52.9% dan min suhu udara tinggi dengan lebih 267.7 juta penduduk. Kajian kami bertujuan untuk menganalisis hubungan antara iklim, kepadatan penduduk dan COVID-19 di Indonesia. Kami menggunakan kaedah kluster K-means dan ujian tepat Fisher untuk menentukan keadaan iklim, kepadatan penduduk dan kelompok COVID-19 dan mengkaji korelasi tersebut. Penyelidikan kami mendapati bahawa terdapat hubungan antara keadaan iklim dan kepadatan penduduk dengan COVID-19 (p: 0,034; p: 0,004). Keadaan iklim yang lebih panas dan kawasan berpenduduk padat menyumbang kepada peningkatan jangkitan COVID-19 di Indonesia. Ini disoroti dengan bukti enam wilayah teratas dengan kes COVID-19 tertinggi adalah wilayah yang dikelaskan dalam keadaan iklim yang lebih panas (suhu udara tinggi, hujan yang rendah dan kelembapan) dan wilayah yang hampir padat hingga berpenduduk padat.

Kata kunci: COVID-19; keadaan iklim; kepadatan penduduk

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*Corresponding author; email: azizah@fkm.unair.ac.id