COVID-19 pandemic in the world and its relation to human development index: A global study

Abstract

Coronaviruses are a large family and a subset of Coronaviridae that include common cold viruses and other severe diseases like severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS-CoV), Middle East respiratory syndrome (MERS-CoV), and coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19). This is an ecological study based on statistics of the prevalence of coronavirus disease until 30 April 2020, based on the reports sent to the World Health Organization (WHO). This study investigates the distribution of the incidence and trend of the incidence rate of COVID-19 in countries, and its relation with the human development index (HDI) until 30 April 2020. The results showed that the most cases of coronavirus disease until the mentioned date were in the United States of America (1,003,947 cases), Spain (212,917 cases), Italy (203,591 cases), the United Kingdom (165,225 cases), and Germany (159,119 cases), in sequence. The results exhibited a significant positive correlation between the incidence of COVID-2019 and HDI in the world (r = 0.470, P < 0.0001).