Abstract
Restrictions on industry and vehicular and pedestrian traffic during the COVID-19 public health emergency were explored to determine associations with increases or decreases in air-impairing gases. Social immobilization is one method of controlling infectious diseases in an emergency and/or quarantine context, resulting in a decrease in environmental contamination. Therefore, this research evaluated the influence of CO, NO2, O3 and SO2 gases in the cities of Bogota, Buenos Aires, Lima, Quito and Santiago. Data from Sentinel-5P netCDF files were used with the help of SNAP Desktop and Qgis software, and governmental regulations dictated by the different governments of each country were also reviewed. The results showed that the cities of Bogota, Buenos Aires, Lima and Quito had significant negative decreases and associations for CO, NO2 and O3 gases, and SO2 gas was statistically disregarded. In addition, the city of Santiago de Chile showed an increase in CO gas. Finally, it is concluded that social immobilization positively influenced the reduction of air pollutant gases and consequently improved the environmental quality of each city.
