Emergence and spread of a SARS-CoV-2 variant through Europe in the summer of 2020

Following its emergence in late 2019, SARS-CoV-2 has caused a global pandemic resulting in unprecedented efforts to reduce transmission and develop therapies and vaccines (WHO Emergency Committee, 2020; Zhu et al., 2020). Rapidly generated viral genome sequences have allowed the spread of the virus to be tracked via phylogenetic analysis (Hadfield et al., 2018; Pybus et al., 2020; Worobey et al., 2020). While the virus spread globally in early 2020 before borders closed, intercontinental travel has since been greatly reduced, allowing continent-specific variants to emerge. However, within Europe travel resumed in the summer of 2020, and the impact of this travel on the epidemic is not well understood. Here we report on a novel SARS-CoV-2 variant, 20A.EU1, that emerged in Spain in early summer, and subsequently spread to multiple locations in Europe, accounting for the majority of sequences by autumn. We find no evidence of increased transmissibility of this variant, but instead demonstrate how rising incidence in Spain, resumption of travel across Europe, and lack of effective screening and containment may explain the variant’s success. Despite travel restrictions and quarantine requirements, we estimate 20A.EU1 was introduced hundreds of times to countries across Europe by summertime travellers, likely undermining local efforts to keep SARS-CoV-2 cases low. Our results demonstrate how genomic surveillance is critical to understanding how travel can impact SARS-CoV-2 transmission, and thus for informing future containment strategies as travel resumes.CAVEATS20A.EU1 most probably rose in frequency in multiple countries due to travel and difference in SARS-CoV-2 prevalence. There is no evidence that it spreads faster.There are currently no data to evaluate whether this variant affects the severity of the disease.While dominant in some countries, 20A.EU1 has not taken over everywhere and diverse variants of SARS-CoV-2 continue to circulate across Europe. 20A.EU1 is not the cause of the European ‘second wave.’

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Micronutrients and Infection with COVID-19: A Critical Mini-Review

Critical Comments in Biomedicine ◽

10.18502/ccb.v2i1.5868 ◽

2021 ◽

Author(s):

Zahra Yaghtin ◽

Richard Webb ◽

Sayyed Saeid Khayyatzadeh

Keyword(s):

Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome ◽

Vitamin A ◽

Nutritional Status ◽

Serum Levels ◽

Global Pandemic ◽

Micronutrient Intake ◽

Severity Of The Disease ◽

The Impact ◽

The Relationship ◽

Low Serum

Severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus-2 (SARS-CoV-2), has been the cause of a global pandemic. Given the impact of nutritional status upon immune function, it is crucial to understand the relationship between micronutrient intake and severity of the disease. This mini-review aimed to summarize the known associations between specific micronutrients (vitamin A, D, E, C and zinc, selenium and magnesium) and the health of coronavirus-infected patients. Low serum levels of these micronutrients are associated with the incidence and severity of SARS-CoV-2. However, further studies are needed to evaluate the outcomes of supplementation with these nutrients.

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THE IMPACT OF LOCKDOWN ON PUBLIC HEALTH DURING THE FIRST WAVE OF COVID-19 PANDEMIC: LESSONS LEARNED FOR DESIGNING EFFECTIVE CONTAINMENT MEASURES TO COPE WITH SECOND WAVE

10.1101/2020.10.22.20217695 ◽

2020 ◽

Cited By ~ 3

Author(s):

Mario Coccia

Keyword(s):

Public Health ◽

Social Issues ◽

Negative Impact ◽

Lessons Learned ◽

Fatality Rate ◽

Negative Effects ◽

Global Pandemic ◽

Containment Measures ◽

The Impact ◽

Second Wave

AbstractWhat is hardly known in the studies of the COVID-19 global pandemic crisis is the impact of general lockdown during the first wave of COVID-19 pandemic both public health and economic system. The main goal of this study is a comparative analysis of some European countries with a longer and shorter period of national lockdown during the first wave of COVID-19 from March to August 2020. Findings suggests that: a) countries with shorter period of lockdown have a variation of confirmed cases/population (%) higher than countries with longer period of lockdown; b) countries with shorter period of lockdown have average fatality rate (5.45%) lower than countries with longer period of lockdown (12.70%), whereas variation of fatality rate from August to March 2020 suggests a higher reduction in countries with longer period of lockdown (−1.9% vs 0.72%). However, Independent Samples Test and the Mann-Whitney test reveal that the effectiveness of longer period of lockdown versus shorter one on public health is not significant. In addition, the COVID-19 pandemic associated with longer period of lockdown has a higher negative impact on economic growth with consequential social issues in countries. Results of the impact of COVID-19 lockdowns on public health and economies of some leading countries in Europe, during the first wave of the COVID-19 pandemic, can provide vital information to design effective containment strategies in future waves of this pandemic to minimize the negative effects in society.

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Impacts of COVID-19 on the Catch of Small-Scale Fishers and Their Families Due to Restriction Policies in Davao Gulf, Philippines

Frontiers in Marine Science ◽

10.3389/fmars.2021.770543 ◽

2022 ◽

Vol 8 ◽

Author(s):

Edison D. Macusi ◽

Stefenie Katrin V. Siblos ◽

Martha Elena Betancourt ◽

Erna S. Macusi ◽

Michael N. Calderon ◽

...

Keyword(s):

The Philippines ◽

World Health ◽

Small Scale ◽

Catch Per Unit Effort ◽

Global Pandemic ◽

Travel Restrictions ◽

The Government ◽

Health Organization ◽

Reduced Mobility ◽

The Impact

COVID-19 was declared a global pandemic by the World Health Organization in 2020 with countries putting up several measures to mitigate and flatten the curve of hospitalizations and death from travel bans to home confinements and local lockdowns. This pandemic created health and economic crises, leading to increased incidence of poverty and food crisis especially on both agriculture and the fisheries in many developing nations including the Philippines. The specific objectives of this study were to assess the impact of COVID-19 restrictions on the catch per unit effort (CPUE) of small-scale fishers and to determine what factors could influence the volume of their catch during this time of pandemic. Moreover, this also investigated the impact of COVID-19 restrictions to fishers and their families. To do that we surveyed N = 200 small-scale fishers around the Davao gulf using semi-structured questionnaire and inquired on the impact of the COVID-19 to their fishing operation, catch, fishing costs, and their families. The collected socioeconomic variables, including emotional responses to the pandemic were then related to the CPUE and the volume of catch. The results show that fishers were highly affected by the pandemic due to the lockdown policy imposed in the fishing villages during the earlier phases of restrictions by the government. Fishers were affected in terms of the volume of their catch, also fishing costs, and emotionally as they were also frustrated due to the impacts of the hard lockdown. The restricted fishing access was found to have important and major set-back on the fishing operations of fishers and the same was experienced also by the middlemen given the low fish price and reduced mobility of the fish traders. COVID-19 also impacted the fishers, and their families through lack of mobility, food inadequacy, travel restrictions and their children’s education.

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Effects of worldwide interventions and vaccination on COVID-19 between waves and countries

10.21203/rs.3.rs-396989/v1 ◽

2021 ◽

Author(s):

Yong Ge ◽

Wenbin Zhang ◽

Haiyan Liu ◽

Corrine W Ruktanonchai ◽

Maogui Hu ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Infectious Diseases ◽

Large Scale ◽

International Travel ◽

Spatiotemporal Variations ◽

School Closures ◽

Vaccination Strategies ◽

Travel Restrictions ◽

The Impact ◽

Second Wave ◽

Pharmaceutical Interventions

Abstract Worldwide governments have rapidly deployed non-pharmaceutical interventions (NPIs) to mitigate the COVID-19 pandemic, together with the large-scale rollout of vaccines since late 2020. However, the effect of these individual NPI and vaccination measures across space and time has not been sufficiently explored. By the decay ratio in the suppression of COVID-19 infections, we investigated the performance of different NPIs across waves in 133 countries, and their integration with vaccine rollouts in 63 countries as of 25 March 2021. The most effective NPIs were gathering restrictions (contributing 27.83% in the infection rate reductions), facial coverings (16.79%) and school closures (10.08%) in the first wave, and changed to facial coverings (30.04%), gathering restrictions (17.51%) and international travel restrictions (9.22%) in the second wave. The impact of NPIs had obvious spatiotemporal variations across countries by waves before vaccine rollouts, with facial coverings being one of the most effective measures consistently. Vaccinations had gradually contributed to the suppression of COVID-19 transmission, from 0.71% and 0.86% within 15 days and 30 days since Day 12 after vaccination, to 1.23% as of 25 March 2021, while NPIs still dominated the pandemic mitigation. Our findings have important implications for continued tailoring of integrated NPI or NPI-vaccination strategies against future COVID-19 waves or similar infectious diseases.

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The Impact of Travelling on the COVID–19 Infection Cases in Germany

10.21203/rs.3.rs-538681/v1 ◽

2021 ◽

Author(s):

Moritz Schäfer ◽

Karunia Putra Wijaya ◽

Robert Rockenfeller ◽

Thomas Götz

Keyword(s):

Transmission Rate ◽

Strong Impact ◽

Disease Dynamics ◽

Vaccination Rates ◽

Social Lives ◽

Political Reaction ◽

Travel Restrictions ◽

The Impact ◽

Second Wave ◽

Epidemiological Parameters

Abstract COVID–19 continues to disrupt social lives and the economy of many countries and challenges their healthcare capacities. In Germany, the number of cases increased exponentially in early March 2020. As a political reaction, social restrictions were imposed by closing e.g. schools, shops, cafés and restaurants, as well as borders for travellers. This reaped success as the infection rate descended significantly in early April. In mid July, however, the numbers started to rise again. Of particular reasons was that from 15 June onwards, the travel ban has widely been cancelled or at least loosened. Here, we present an extended susceptible–exposed–infected–recovered–deceased (SEIRD) model to describe the disease dynamics in Germany, taking into account German travellers which returned infected from abroad. Epidemiological parameters like transmission rate, lethality or detection rate of infected individuals, as well as a rate measuring the impact of these travellers, were estimated by fitting the model output to available data. Parameter estimation was performed via Bayesian inference with the aid of the Monte–Carlo–based Metropolis algorithm. We found that travellers had a strong impact on the overall infection cases. Until the end of August, roughly 50,000 cases directly or indirectly related to travellers were estimated. These obviously caused even higher infection cases later on, which among other causes lead to a second wave of infection cases in late 2020. We conclude that travel restrictions are an important tool for controlling infection cases during pandemics which can still have an impact on the upcoming summer in case the currently high vaccination rates can not prevent further infection waves.

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The Impact of Travelling On The COVID–19 Infection Cases in Germany

10.21203/rs.3.rs-538681/v2 ◽

2021 ◽

Author(s):

Moritz Schäfer ◽

Karunia Putra Wijaya ◽

Robert Rockenfeller ◽

Thomas Götz

Keyword(s):

Detection Rate ◽

Transmission Rate ◽

Strong Impact ◽

Model Output ◽

Vaccination Rates ◽

Social Lives ◽

Political Reaction ◽

Travel Restrictions ◽

The Impact ◽

Second Wave

Abstract Background COVID–19 continues to disrupt social lives and the economy of many countries and challenges their healthcare capacities. InGermany, the number of cases increased exponentially in early March 2020. As a political reaction, social restrictions wereimposed by closing e.g. schools, shops, cafés and restaurants, as well as borders for travellers. This reaped success as theinfection rate descended significantly in early April. In mid July, however, the numbers started to rise again. Of particularreasons was that from 15 June onwards, the travel ban has widely been cancelled or at least loosened. Methods Here, we present an extended susceptible–exposed–infected–recovered–deceased (SEIRD) model to describe the diseasedynamics in Germany, taking into account German travellers which returned infected from abroad. Epidemiological parameterslike transmission rate, lethality or detection rate of infected individuals, as well as a rate measuring the impact of these travellers,were estimated by fitting the model output to available data. Parameter estimation was performed via Bayesian inference withthe aid of the Monte–Carlo–based Metropolis algorithm. Results We found that travellers had a strong impact on the overall infection cases. Until the end of August, roughly 50,000 casesdirectly or indirectly related to travellers were estimated. These obviously caused even higher infection cases later on, whichamong other causes lead to a second wave of infection cases in late 2020. Conclusions We conclude that travel restrictions are an important tool for controlling infection cases during pandemics which can still havean impact on the upcoming summer in case the currently high vaccination rates can not prevent further infection waves.

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The Impact of New Coronavirus on Cancer Patients

Journal of Pharmaceutical Care ◽

10.18502/jpc.v9i4.8226 ◽

2022 ◽

Author(s):

Aida Karimian ◽

Sona Talaei ◽

Arash Abdolmaleki ◽

Asadollah Asadi ◽

Muhammad Akram ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Cancer Patients ◽

Treatment Process ◽

Data Sources ◽

Public Health Issue ◽

Medical Centers ◽

Global Pandemic ◽

Severity Of The Disease ◽

Respiratory Droplets ◽

The Impact

t the end of 2019, a new coronavirus (severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2)) emerged in China and then spread worldwide. Presently, Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) is a main public health issue. As of August 2021, more than 200 million confirmed cases from coronavirus and more than 4 million deaths have been reported by WHO in 222 countries. The data sources are Google Scholar, PubMed, and Science Direct articles. Publications were searched without regard to time in order to obtain a holistic and comprehensive perspective of the research done on this issue thus far. The SARS-CoV-2 can be transmitted from the human-to-human by respiratory droplets and shows great potential for a pandemic. Therefore, on March 11, 2020, COVID-19 was introduced as a global pandemic by WHO. Cancer patients are at high risk for exposure to the coronavirus. In the present article, we discuss the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the quality of life of cancer patients and their treatment process. One of these challenges is not visiting the patients in medical centers and hospitals for afraid of contracting the virus. Therefore, the diagnosis and treatment of cancer patients may be delayed, which is a serious threat to the lives of cancer patients. In this article, in addition to the impact of coronavirus on the lives of cancer patients, the severity of the disease in these patients, their required medical care, and the vaccination process are discussed.

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SARS-CoV-2 transmission chains from genetic data: a Danish case study

10.1101/2020.05.29.123612 ◽

2020 ◽

Cited By ~ 7

Author(s):

Andreas Bluhm ◽

Matthias Christandl ◽

Fulvio Gesmundo ◽

Frederik Ravn Klausen ◽

Laura Mančinska ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Genetic Data ◽

The Other ◽

Contact Tracing ◽

Virus Spread ◽

Genome Sequences ◽

Alternative Means ◽

The Common ◽

Second Wave ◽

Opening Up

AbstractBackgroundThe COVID-19 pandemic caused by the SARS-CoV-2 virus started in China in December 2019 and has since spread globally. Information about the spread of the virus in a country can inform the gradual reopening of a country and help to avoid a second wave of infections. Denmark is currently opening up after a lockdown in mid-March.MethodsWe perform a phylogenetic analysis of 742 publicly available Danish SARS-CoV-2 genome sequences and put them into context using sequences from other countries.ResultOur findings are consistent with several introductions of the virus to Denmark from independent sources. We identify several chains of mutations that occurred in Denmark and in at least one case find evidence that the virus spread from Denmark to other countries. A number of the mutations found in Denmark are non-synonymous, and in general there is a considerable variety of strains. The proportions of the most common haplotypes is stable after lockdown.ConclusionOur work shows how genetic data can be used to identify routes of introduction of a virus into a region and provide alternative means for verifying existing assumptions. For example, our analysis supports the hypothesis that the virus was brought to Denmark by skiers returning from Ischgl. On the other hand, we identify transmission chains suggesting that Denmark was part of a network of countries among which the virus was being transmitted; thus challenging the common narrative that Denmark only got infected from abroad. Our analysis does not indicate that the major haplotypes appearing in Denmark have a different degree of virality. Our methods can be applied to other countries, regions or even highly localised outbreaks. When used in real-time, we believe they can serve to identify transmission events and supplement traditional methods such as contact tracing.

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Optimization strategies of human mobility during the COVID-19 pandemic: A review

Mathematical Biosciences and Engineering ◽

10.3934/mbe.2021395 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 18 (6) ◽

pp. 7965-7978

Author(s):

Soumyajyoti Biswas ◽

◽

Amit Kr Mandal ◽

Keyword(s):

Human Mobility ◽

Global Scale ◽

Data Driven ◽

Virus Spread ◽

Spreading Process ◽

The Public ◽

Short Period ◽

Travel Restrictions ◽

Almost All ◽

The Impact

<abstract><p>The impact of the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic is being felt in all spheres of our lives – cutting across the boundaries of nation, wealth, religions or race. From the time of the first detection of infection among the public, the virus spread though almost all the countries in the world in a short period of time. With humans as the carrier of the virus, the spreading process necessarily depends on the their mobility after being infected. Not only in the primary spreading process, but also in the subsequent spreading of the mutant variants, human mobility plays a central role in the dynamics. Therefore, on one hand travel restrictions of varying degree were imposed and are still being imposed, by various countries both nationally and internationally. On the other hand, these restrictions have severe fall outs in businesses and livelihood in general. Therefore, it is an optimization process, exercised on a global scale, with multiple changing variables. Here we review the techniques and their effects on optimization or proposed optimizations of human mobility in different scales, carried out by data driven, machine learning and model approaches.</p></abstract>

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The impact of Covid-19 pandemic on water supplies and wastewater sewer system

IOP Conference Series Earth and Environmental Science ◽

10.1088/1755-1315/900/1/012021 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 900 (1) ◽

pp. 012021

Author(s):

M Kyncl ◽

S Drabinová

Keyword(s):

Water Management ◽

Drinking Water ◽

Early Warning ◽

Water Disinfection ◽

Virus Spread ◽

Sewer System ◽

Global Pandemic ◽

The Future ◽

Drinking Water Disinfection ◽

The Impact

Abstract Besides other issues, the global pandemic caused by SARS CoV-2 also brought a number of water management questions which mainly concern the likelihood of virus spread through drinking water and possible contamination of wastewater. This paper reviews principal data on the virus and the recent course of the pandemics. It shows that there is no risk of the virus spread through drinking water and that drinking water disinfection is sufficiently effective. On the contrary, wastewater was observed for SARS CoV-2 RNA particles. As a result, a number of papers deal with research in the observation of the virus in wastewater, which may become an early-warning tool before an epidemic develops. The monitoring of the virus in wastewaters may also enable researchers to predict the course of Covid-19 illness rates in the future.

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