Air pollution further drops in Istanbul amid coronavirus lockdown

Duvar English - Anadolu Agency

The air pollution in Istanbul fell around 30 percent following stay-at-home calls to curb the spread of the the novel coronavirus pandemic, according to the city’s municipality.

In a statement on April 29, the Istanbul Municipality said the number of vehicles on the traffic dropped as a result of the measures against the spread of coronavirus in the city, including a four-day curfew last week.

The statement also cited Bahar Tuncel, an environmental engineer for the municipality, who highlighted the impact of the fall in the number of vehicles on traffic in air quality, saying: “The limit value should be annually 40 micrograms/cubic meters in terms of particulate matter."

“Before the pandemic, the particulate matter contaminants were at a level of 45-55 micrograms/cubic meters throughout Istanbul,” she added.

During the period of virus measures, the level of airborne particulate matter dropped below 50, she said, adding that it even went down to levels of 30 micrograms/cubic meters this week.

Turkey took various measures to prevent the spread of COVID-19, including weekend curfews in 31 provinces.

Last week, data from the air quality measurement stations and municipalities across Turkey showed that air pollution in major cities has fallen significantly due to reduced activity during the lockdown.

More than 3.12 million people in 185 countries and regions have been infected by the coronavirus since it emerged in China last December, with the US and Europe being the world’s hardest-hit areas.

A significant proportion of patients -- nearly 935,500 -- have recovered from COVID-19, but the disease has claimed over 217,600 lives so far, according to data compiled by Johns Hopkins University in the U.S.