Effects of COVID-19 Emergency Response Levels on Air Quality in the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area, China

ABSTRACT The COVID-19 pandemic has affected air quality due to extreme changes in human behavior. We assessed the air quality response to different emergency levels during different COVID-19 periods and the naught period in the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area (GBA). We obtained the following conclusions: (1) The measures implemented to prevent and control of COVID-19 directly impacted ambient air pollutants. The air quality index and the concentrations of NO2, PM2.5, PM10, and CO in the GBA for 1–19 January 2020 declined 19.4%, 16.7%, 27.5%, 15.8%, and 25.7%, respectively, compared to the same time period in 2016–2019. (2) The reduction in air pollution was strongly associated with the first-level emergency response during this pandemic. The AQI, NO2, PM2.5, PM10, O3, and CO in the GBA decreased by 37.4%, 47.0%, 40.5%, 44.8%, 6.7%, and 24.1%, respectively. We found no statistically significant difference in the concentrations of different pollutants, except for NO2, during the second- and third-level responses. (3) The higher the emergency response level, the greater the NO2 pollutants reduction. The NO2 concentration was reduced by 47.0%, 25.5%, and 12.1% at emergency response levels 1, 2, and 3, respectively. The results highlight the importance of understanding the role of emergency response in air quality, and provide reference for authorities to formulate more scientific and reasonable emergency responses to epidemic prevention and control.