New research suggests that air pollution may have an effect on the number of people who die from COVID-19. The rapid spread of the SARS-CoV-2 virus has meant that there has been little time for scientists to determine what affects its speed of transmission and how lethal it can be. Scientists have, however, already identified some factors that might affect the lethality of COVID-19. These factors include underlying health conditions, a person’s age, and their sex. They have based this information on data inferred from previous viral respiratory illnesses or from countries, such as Italy or China, that had early exposure to the virus. The researchers discovered a possible correlation that scientists had not previously addressed a link between air pollution and the number of deaths from COVID-19. This correlation became apparent when they looked at the situation in Italy. Official figures from the Italian government show a significant variation in the lethality of the virus, depending on geographic areas. According to these figures, northern regions of Italy, such as Lombardy or Emilia Romagna, saw a lethality rate of 12%.