Multidimensional Conditions of the First Wave of the COVID-19 Epidemic in the Trans-Industrial Region. An Example of the Silesian Voivodeship in Poland

Abstract

The successive phases of the global COVID-19 pandemic show some differences from the first wave in 2020. The most important of these is some experience in responding to its spread and in applying vaccines. However, new, more aggressive variants of COVID-19 mean that the pandemic is often taking on the nature of the one experienced by societies a year ago. So, the knowledge about the first wave of the COVID-19 pandemic is still up-to-date—significantly where the essential determinants of its spread have not changed. The article presents the Silesian Voivodeship case in Southern Poland, distinguished by different geographical conditions compared to the entire country. The authors showed the relationship between the spread of the COVID-19 epidemic and the characteristic attributes of the analysed area (post-)mining functions or urban shrinkage. The article conducted a dependence study using the Pearson correlation coefficient and the signs table method. In turn, the authors used thematic cartography to present the results of the analysis. It turned out that two attributes, namely (post-)mining and urban shrinkage, are essential in spreading the epidemic with the region analysed. This conclusion may be essential in implementing national and regional policies related to reducing the COVID-19 pandemic. However, a limitation in the scope of the presented applications is the fact that mining regions, such as the Silesian (Śląskie) Voivodeship, are currently less numerous in the world than, for example, those that develop based on services.