Abstract: Environmental Science and Pollution Research (2021) 28:40322–40328 https://doi.org/10.1007/s11356-020-10930-w ENVIRONMENTAL FACTORS AND THE EPIDEMICS OF COVID-19 COVID-19 pandemic: environmental and social factors influencing the spread of SARS-CoV-2 in São Paulo, Brazil Liane Yuri Kondo Nakada 1 & Rodrigo Custodio Urban 2 Received: 9 May 2020 / Revised: 18 July 2020 / Accepted: 30 July 2020 / Published online: 28 September 2020 # Springer-Verlag GmbH Germany, part of Springer Nature 2020 Abstract The new coronavirus SARS-CoV-2 has infected more than 14 million people worldwide so far. Brazil is currently the second leading country in number of cases of COVID-19, while São Paulo state accounts for 20% of total confirmed cases in Brazil. The aim of this study was to assess environmental and social factors influencing the spread of SARS-CoV-2 in the expanded metropolitan area of São Paulo, Brazil. Firstly, a spatial analysis was conducted to provide insights into the spread of COVID19 within the expanded metropolitan area. Moreover, Spearman correlation test and sensitivity analysis were performed to assess social indicators and environmental conditions which possibly influence the incidence of COVID-19. Our results reveal that the spread of COVID-19 from the capital city São Paulo—its epicenter in Brazil—is directly associated with the availability of highways within the expanded metropolitan area of São Paulo. As for social aspects, COVID-19 infection rate was found to be both positively correlated with population density, and negatively correlated with social isolation rate, hence indicating that social distancing has been effective in reducing the COVID-19 transmission. Finally, COVID-19 infection rate was found to be inversely correlated with both temperature and UV radiation. Together with recent literature our study suggests that the UV radiation provided by sunlight might contribute to depletion of SARS-CoV-2 infectivity. Keywords Cumulative confirmed cases . Infection rate . Spatial analysis . Social indicators . Solar UV radiation . Temperature . Weather conditions