Densely populated cities not necessarily prone to coronavirus infections, study finds

Coronavirus pandemic continues to wreak havoc around the world. In just the last 24 hours, India witnessed its highest ever coronavirus infections at 2,34,692. A new research sheds light on how the virus affects urban areas. For long, it was believed that densely populated cities are hotbeds for infectious transmission.

A new study published in Sustainable Cities and Society suggests that crowded cities are not likely to cause more infections. Researchers took data from a health application in account. They also looked at the details from Tehran, Iran which was once an epicentre of the pandemic.

Researchers found that population density alone cannot be considered a risk factor. Even then, researchers accounted for the difference between “high density” and “overcrowding”. They found that overcrowding posed a bigger risk and continues to getin the way of social distancing.

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The researchers added that overcrowding can occur even in districts that have a low density. Owing to this, they ascertained that cities that are densely populated may not be considered a risk factor.

To achieve this, researchers from the Universities of Tehran and Isfahan, along with Hiroshima University in Japan collected data which was recorded by Iran’s COVID-19 tracing application called “AC19”.

Tehran, the city around which the research as modelled has 8.6 million people living in 22 districts. Researchers found that population density played only a minimal role in COVID-19 transmission.

More important factors than population density included age, wealth, healthcare, along with how rigorously people follow protocols.