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A year later, Italy’s COVID-19 fatality rate remains the fourth-highest in the world, after Mexico, Peru and Hungary, according to Johns Hopkins University. Of the country’s 99,000 deaths, almost a third were concentrated in the wealthy northern region of Lombardy.
Researchers in Europe quickly noticed that coronavirus hot spots seemed to correspond to relatively polluted areas around the world, such as Bergamo, New York and parts of China, and began investigating. A study published in the December issue of the journal Cardiovascular Research
concluded that exposure to tiny particles 2.5 micrometers or smaller, known in scientific shorthand as PM2.5 particles, was correlated with a higher percentage of avoidable deaths from COVID-19 among those who came down with the disease.