Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) was first reported in Wuhan, China, at the end of December 2019. The disease then rapidly spread around the world and declared as a public health emergency of international concern (PHEIC) on 30th January 2020, and as a pandemic on 11th March 2020 (World Health Organization, 2020). The high transmissibility of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) makes the spread of the disease virtually impossible to stop within a short period, resulting in both a global health emergency and widespread public fear (Cohen and Kupferschmidt, 2020). As of June 22, SARS-CoV-2 has infected more than 8.9 million individuals and caused over 466,500 fatalities globally (Walker, 2020).

Disinfection is a commonly used practice for preventing SARS-CoV-2 infection in households and community settings. In an attempt to contain the outbreak in most parts of the world, fleets of trucks, drones, and mini-tankers have been deployed to spray vast quantities of disinfectants in urban public areas (Fig. 1; Palmer et al., 2020; You, 2020; Service, 2020). The active components of the majority of the disinfectants used are harmful and corrosive chemical compounds, including chlorine-releasing agents, oxidizing agents, and quaternary ammonium cations (Emmanuel et al., 2004; Dumas et al., 2019; Bonin et al., 2020). Although some human residents of cities can avoid contact with these chemicals by remaining at home, urban organisms are directly or indirectly exposed to these chemicals. Furthermore, with cities on lockdown, animals in urban areas go deeper into the cities, and frequently explore the emptied streets, parks, and waterways (BBC, 2020). This temporary boom in urban wildlife and massive disinfection during lockdown could affect a large amount of biodiversity.