Impact of COVID-19 pandemic on sustainability determinants: A global trend

Hafiz Syed Mohsin Abbas; Xiaodong Xu; Chunxia Sun; Atta Ullah; Samreen Gillani; Muhammad Ahsan Ali Raza

doi:10.1016/j.heliyon.2021.e05912

Impact of COVID-19 pandemic on sustainability determinants: A global trend

Heliyon. 2021 Feb;7(2):e05912. doi: 10.1016/j.heliyon.2021.e05912. Epub 2021 Jan 9.

Authors

Hafiz Syed Mohsin Abbas¹, Xiaodong Xu¹, Chunxia Sun¹, Atta Ullah², Samreen Gillani³, Muhammad Ahsan Ali Raza⁴

Affiliations

¹ College of Public Administration, Huazhong University of Science and Technology, Wuhan, 430074, Hubei, China.
² School of Management, Huazhong University of Science and Technology, Wuhan, 430074, Hubei, China.
³ School of Economics, University of Central Punjab, Lahore, 54000, Pakistan.
⁴ School of Economics and Management, Beijing University of Posts and Telecommunications, Beijing, 100876, China.

Abstract

For the last six months till today, the world had had no luck in defeating COVID-19. This study examined the impact of the COVID-19 Pandemic on sustainability determinants, with the time arisen from December 27, 2019, through June 30, 2020. This study considers quantitative COVID-19 dashboard data with sustainable determinants; old age group, people exposed to air pollution, and countries with the most international travelers. Applying linear regression examines that COVID-19 behavior concerning the aging population and countries host the most international travelers, more positively significant than people exposed to PM2.5% air pollution, respectively. This study made a novel contribution by analyzing two variables' interaction; first, the aging population and the countries that host the most international travelers. Secondly, the aging population and people exposed to air pollution are vulnerable to COVID-19 globally, a novel concept comprehensively. Results show that countries with aging populations are more exposed to COVID-19, and its interaction term host the most international travelers. It also analyses that the aging population and its interaction with people exposed to air pollution are also vulnerable to COVID-19 but marginally lesser than the former. However, their behavior varies from country to country, making room for future study to analyze a more in-depth analysis. It gives a different dimension to consider other risk factors of COVID-19 by bearing in mind its unique contagious characteristics, which will help policymakers draft a sound epidemic preparedness policy to tackle the unforeseen crisis. It gives a thought of provoking to policy practitioners for the risk characteristics of COVID-19, which needs a reassessment to epidemic risk management to deal with this, and future unforeseen crisis by considering Sustainable Development Goals.

Keywords: Ageing population; COVID-19 pandemic; Countries host the most international travelers; People exposed to PM2.5% air pollution; Sustainability; Vulnerable factors.