| Summary: | Background: Ozone (O<sub>3</sub>) and nitrogen dioxide (NO<sub>2</sub>) are substances with oxidizing ability in the atmosphere. Only considering the impact of a single substance is not comprehensive. However, people’s understanding of “total oxidation capacity” (O<sub>x</sub>) and “weighted average oxidation” (O<sub>x</sub><sup>wt</sup>) is limited. Objectives: This investigation aims to assess the impact of O<sub>x</sub> and O<sub>x</sub><sup>wt</sup> on the novel coronavirus disease (COVID-19). We also compared the relationship between the different calculation methods of O<sub>x</sub> and O<sub>x</sub><sup>wt</sup> and the COVID-19 infection rate. Method: We recorded confirmed COVID-19 cases and daily pollutant concentrations (O<sub>3</sub> and NO<sub>2</sub>) in 34 provincial capital cities in China. The generalized additive model (GAM) was used to analyze the nonlinear relationship between confirmed COVID-19 cases and O<sub>x</sub> and O<sub>x</sub><sup>wt</sup>. Result: Our results indicated that the correlation between O<sub>x</sub> and COVID-19 was more sensitive than O<sub>x</sub><sup>wt</sup>. The hysteresis effect of O<sub>x</sub> and O<sub>x</sub><sup>wt</sup> decreased with time. The most obvious statistical data was observed in Central China and South China. A 10 µg m<sup>−3</sup> increase in mean O<sub>x</sub> concentrations were related to a 23.1% (95%CI: 11.4%, 36.2%) increase, and a 10 µg m<sup>−3</sup> increase in average O<sub>x</sub><sup>wt</sup> concentration was related to 10.7% (95%CI: 5.2%, 16.8%) increase in COVID-19. In conclusion, our research results show that O<sub>x</sub> and O<sub>x</sub><sup>wt</sup> can better replace the single pollutant research on O<sub>3</sub> and NO<sub>2</sub>, which is used as a new idea for future epidemiological research.
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