Journal of Environment Pollution and Human Health, 2020, Vol. 8, No. 2, 55-68 Available online at http://pubs.sciepub.com/jephh/8/2/3 Published by Science and Education Publishing DOI:10.12691/jephh-8-2-3 COVID-19 Induced Lockdown Consequences on Air Quality and Economy - A Case Study of Bangladesh Sajal Roy 1,* , Nasrin Chowdhury 1 , Mohammad Mamun Morshed Bhuyan 2 1 Department of Soil Science, University of Chittagong, Chittagong-4331, Bangladesh 2 Department of Economics, University of Chittagong, Chittagong-4331, Bangladesh *Corresponding author: sajal.roy@cu.ac.bd Received May 19, 2020; Revised May 26, 2020; Accepted June 02, 2020 Abstract The present study involves the investigation of air quality of Dhaka city, Bangladesh, before and during the periods of lockdown imposed to reduce the spread of a novel coronavirus (COVID-19) and comparison of data in corresponding periods of two previous years. Further, the consequences of COVID-19 in terms of economic disruptions were also studied. The accelerated and vast diffusion of COVID-19 in Dhaka has a high association with air pollution compared to the other cities of Bangladesh. Air pollution can be considered as an important determinant in the COVID-19 crisis. It was found that the mean air quality index (AQI) in Dhaka before lockdown in March in 2020 was found to be 4.82% and 5.30% lower compared to the corresponding period in 2018 and 2019, respectively. On the other hand, the average AQI during the lockdown in 2020 was found to be 9.57% and 16.74% lower respectively compared to the same period in 2018 and 2019. A significant negative correlation was found between AQI and rainfall (p<0.01) during the period of lockdown. Indeed, Dhaka city had better air quality during the lockdown but it was prognosticated that the remittance would fall by about 22% and GDP would plunge to a range between 2% and 3% in 2020 due to COVID-19. Keywords: air pollution, Bangladesh, COVID-19, economic consequences, health effects, lockdown Cite This Article: Sajal Roy, Nasrin Chowdhury, and Mohammad Mamun Morshed Bhuyan, “COVID-19 Induced Lockdown Consequences on Air Quality and Economy - A Case Study of Bangladesh.” Journal of Environment Pollution and Human Health, vol. 8, no. 2 (2020): 55-68. doi: 10.12691/jephh-8-2-3. 1. Introduction Coronavirus (COVID-19), formerly known as 2019- nCOV, is a novel severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) which belongs to 2b beta- coronavirus of the subgenus sarbecovirus, Orthocoronaviridae subfamilies [1,2]. This virus was first reported in December 2019 as an "unknown viral pneumonia", which transmitted to humans through unknown intermediate host from a seafood market in Wuhan city of China [1,3,4]. By the 16 th of May 2020, a total number of 4,434,653 infected persons were identified and 302,169 deaths were reported globally because of COVID-19 [5]. Outside China, the first infected case was reported in Thailand on 13 th January 2020 and as of 13 th May 2020, this infection has been spread over 215 countries [6]. The worldwide scenario of COVID-19 is shown in Figure 1. The first COVID-19 infected case in Bangladesh was reported on 08 th March 2020 [7]. Bangladesh, a country of South Asia, has an area of 147,570 sq km [8] and a total population of 160 million [9]. Because of the very high density of the population, Bangladesh is at high risk of COVID -19 outbreak all over the country as this virus mainly spread by human to human contact through the infected person’s coughs and sneeze producing micro- droplets. Figure 1. Worldwide scenario of COVID-19 as of 16 th of May 2020 [5]