The underlying factors of the COVID‐19 spatially uneven spread. Initial evidence from regions in nine EU countries

The novel coronavirus COVID-19 was brought to the global spotlight in early 2020 and has already had significant impacts on daily life, while the effects could last for a long period. However, these impacts appear to have been regionally differentiated, since similar to previous pandemics, geography plays an important role in viruses' diffusion. This paper enriches our knowledge about the initial territorial impact of the pandemic, from January to May 2020, studying the spread of COVID-19 across 119 regional economies in nine EU countries and explaining its underlying factors. Air quality, demographics, global interconnectedness, urbanization trends, historic trends in health expenditure as well as the policies implemented to mitigate the pandemic were found to have influenced the regionally uneven mortality rate of COVID-19. El reciente coronavirus COVID-19 se convirtió en el foco de atención mundial a principios de 2020 y ya ha tenido importantes repercusiones en la vida cotidiana, y es posible que sus efectos duren por un largo período. Sin embargo, estos impactos parecen ser diferentes por regiones, ya que, al igual que en pandemias anteriores, la geografía desempeña un papel importante en la difusión de los virus. Este artículo enriquece el conocimiento sobre el impacto territorial inicial de la pandemia entre enero y mayo de 2020, mediante el estudio de la propagación de COVID-19 en 119 economías regionales de nueve países de la UE y una explicación de sus factores subyacentes. Se comprobó que la calidad del aire, la demografía, la interconexión mundial, las tendencias hacia la urbanización, las tendencias históricas del gasto sanitario y las políticas aplicadas para mitigar la pandemia influyeron en la desigualdad por regiones de la tasa de mortalidad por COVID-19. 新型コロナウイルス感染症 (COVID-19)は2020年初頭に世界的な注目を集め、すでに日常生活に大きな影響を与えているが、その影響は長期間持続する可能性がある。しかし、これらの影響は、過去のパンデミックと同様、地理学がウイルスの拡散に重要な役割を果たしおり、地域的な識別が行われているようである。本稿では、2020年の1月から5月の、EUの9か国における119の地域の経済におけるCOVID-19の拡散を検討し、その基礎となる要因を解明し、パンデミックの初期の地域的影響に関する知識を強化する。大気質、人口統計、グローバル経済の相互関連性、都市化傾向、医療費の歴史的傾向、そしてパンデミックを緩和するために実施された政策が地域的に不均一なCOVID-19による死亡率に影響を及ぼしたことが認められる。 Since December 2019, the novel coronavirus COVID-19 has entered our lives and, starting from China, has spread across 215 countries, by the end of May 2020. Although the fatality rate cannot be estimated yet, there are two elements that make COVID-19 a serious threat to human life. First, the high amount of asymptomatic COVID-19 carriers and, second, the high reproduction rate (R0), which shows the number of people being infected by a single patient, being above 2.5 in the early stages of the current outbreak (Benvenuto et al., 2020). Coronavirus and the subsequent policies adopted to address its impacts shook up all aspects of life. However, these effects appear to have been geographically differentiated. Space has played an important role in the development of previous pandemics, with geographical proximity being key to viruses' spread (McLafferty, 2010). Regions across the European Union have recorded different levels of COVID-19 transmission, adding a layer to the complex mosaic of factors that determine the spatial inequalities in terms of growth (Woods, 2020a). Most patients and deaths caused by COVID-19 have been concentrated in specific regions of Europe, such as Lombardia, Madrid and Paris. Examining the COVID-19 impact at the regional level could provide useful insights, with regions recording different levels of exposure to the virus, even within the same country. This analytical paper contributes to the study of the initial territorial impact of COVID-19, seeking to examine its spread across regional economies in Western Europe and explain its underlying factors. It focuses on 119 regions in nine EU countries, being among those which so far have been most adversely affected across the globe. The paper examines distinct regional economic, social, demographic and environmental factors and highlights the various policy responses, such as lockdown and social distancing measures (Torre, 2020). Considering the novelty of the situation with COVID-19, the paper tests the role of specific regional features in the spread of the virus already examined in the literature, such as environmental pollution (Zhu, Xie, Huang, Humer, Rauhut, Sabel, Pringle, & Schaerstrom, 2010). By expanding locally, leading to high regional concentration, or transferring over longer distances, resulting in international spread, viruses diffuse across space, following certain routes, either at the regional level, through commuting, or at the national and international level, via trade and air travel routes (Lai et al. 2009). The deepening of globalization and the increase in urbanization in the last decades have been important for the pandemics. Globalization has been accompanied by significant advances in communications and medical treatments, that are capable of mitigating the pandemic spread (McLafferty, 2010). Notwithstanding that, globalization comes together with a considerable rise in mobility and global interconnectedness, as well as the deepening of climate emergency, favouring the emergence and growth of pandemics 2009). the trends in global air have been key of the spread of previous such as SARS & The growth of and the development of in by the an important for the spread of a due to the increase of and & 2020). 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