Correlational analysis of geographical and socioeconomic factors on covid-19 spread in the Metropolitan Region of Chile

The COVID-19 disease is the major pandemic in the last decades, where the person-to-person transmission easily spreads the virus worldwide, where understanding the relationship between environmental and socio-economic variables in a spatial context is crucial to face future pandemics. Therefore, the aim of this study was to analyze in a global way the behavior of the COVID-19 outbreak in the Metropolitan Region of Chile during the months of March-June 2020. The Metropolitan Region was segmented by 52 communes, and epidemiological, demographic, socioeconomic variables and distribution of services were analyzed under this spatial division. Then, the number of contagions was correlated with days of lockdown, health risks, socioeconomic status, among others. The results show that there are areas in the Chilean Metropolitan Region that have a combination of factors that favor the spread of the SARS-CoV2 virus. Communes with a higher rate of overcrowding, lower educational level and higher rates of comorbidities were those with highest number of COVID-19 cases. Interestingly, these results show that since the beginning more cases were observed in the young adult population. These results provide a framework of variables related to the spreading of the virus and could contribute to decision making during pandemic in the Metropolitan Region of Chile.