scholarly journals Response to the COVID-19 Epidemic: The Chinese Experience and Implications for Other Countries

2020 ◽  
Vol 17 (7) ◽  
pp. 2304 ◽  
Author(s):  
Wei Liu ◽  
Xiao-Guang Yue ◽  
Paul B. Tchounwou
Keyword(s):  
Control Measures ◽  
Business Community ◽  
Infection Prevention And Control ◽  
The Novel ◽  
Multiple Systems ◽  
The Public ◽  
Community Technology ◽  
Containment Measures ◽  
Novel Coronavirus ◽  
And Control

The ongoing outbreak of the novel coronavirus disease (COVID-19) that occurred in China is rapidly spreading globally. China’s bond and strict containment measures have been proved (in practice) to significantly reduce the spread of the epidemic. This was obtained through the use of emergency control measures in the epidemic areas and the integration of resources from multiple systems, including business, community, technology, education, and transportation, across the country. In order to better understand how China has managed to reduce the public health and economic impacts of the COVID-19 epidemic, this editorial systematically reviews the specific measures for infection prevention and control of the disease. The best practices for COVID-19 eradication in China provide evidence-based strategies that could be replicated in other countries.

Coronavirus: Towards controlling of the pandemic - Indian scenario

2020 ◽  
Vol 11 (SPL1) ◽  
pp. 462-468
Author(s):  
Latika kothari ◽  
Sanskruti Wadatkar ◽  
Roshni Taori ◽  
Pavan Bajaj ◽  
Diksha Agrawal
Keyword(s):  
Control Measures ◽  
The Novel ◽  
Medical Treatments ◽  
Health Crisis ◽  
The Public ◽  
Infection Control Measures ◽  
The Social ◽  
Asking Questions ◽  
The Government ◽  
Novel Coronavirus

Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is a communicable infection caused by the novel coronavirus resulting in severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV). It was recognized to be a health crisis for the general population of international concern on 30th January 2020 and conceded as a pandemic on 11th March 2020. India is taking various measures to fight this invisible enemy by adopting different strategies and policies. To stop the COVID-19 from spreading, the Home Affairs Ministry and the health ministry, of India, has issued the nCoV 19 guidelines on travel. Screening for COVID-19 by asking questions about any symptoms, recent travel history, and exposure. India has been trying to get testing kits available. The government of India has enforced various laws like the social distancing, Janata curfew, strict lockdowns, screening door to door to control the spread of novel coronavirus. In this pandemic, innovative medical treatments are being explored, and a proper vaccine is being hunted to deal with the situation. Infection control measures are necessary to prevent the virus from further spreading and to help control the current situation. Thus, this review illustrates and explains the criteria provided by the government of India to the awareness of the public to prevent the spread of COVID-19.

scholarly journals Improving knowledge, attitudes and practice to prevent COVID-19 transmission in healthcare workers and the public in Thailand

2021 ◽  
Vol 21 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Rapeephan R. Maude ◽  
Monnaphat Jongdeepaisal ◽  
Sumawadee Skuntaniyom ◽  
Thanomvong Muntajit ◽  
Stuart D. Blacksell ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
General Public ◽  
Prevention And Control ◽  
Healthcare Workers ◽  
Infection Prevention ◽  
Control Measures ◽  
Infection Prevention And Control ◽  
The Public ◽  
Educational Videos ◽  
Prevention And Control Measures ◽  
And Control

Abstract Background Key infection prevention and control measures to limit transmission of COVID-19 include social distancing, hand hygiene, use of facemasks and personal protective equipment. However, these have limited or no impact if not applied correctly through lack of knowledge, inappropriate attitude or incorrect practice. In order to maximise the impact of infection prevention and control measures on COVID-19 spread, we undertook a study to assess and improve knowledge, attitudes and practice among 119 healthcare workers and 100 general public in Thailand. The study setting was two inpatient hospitals providing COVID-19 testing and treatment. Detailed information on knowledge, attitudes and practice among the general public and healthcare workers regarding COVID-19 transmission and its prevention were obtained from a combination of questionnaires and observations. Results Knowledge of the main transmission routes, commonest symptoms and recommended prevention methods was mostly very high (> 80%) in both groups. There was lower awareness of aerosols, food and drink and pets as sources of transmission; of the correct duration for handwashing; recommended distance for social/physical distancing; and about recommended types of face coverings. Information sources most used and most trusted were the workplace, work colleagues, health workers and television. The results were used to produce a set of targeted educational videos which addressed many of these gaps with subsequent improvements on retesting in a number of areas. This included improvements in handwashing practice with an increase in the number of areas correctly washed in 65.5% of the public, and 57.9% of healthcare workers. The videos were then further optimized with feedback from participants followed by another round of retesting. Conclusions Detailed information on gaps in knowledge, attitudes and practice among the general public and healthcare workers regarding COVID-19 transmission and its prevention were obtained from a combination of questionnaires and observations. This was used to produce targeted educational videos which addressed these gaps with subsequent improvements on retesting. The resulting videos were then disseminated as a resource to aid in efforts to fight COVID-19 in Thailand and worldwide.

scholarly journals Internet Hospitals Help Prevent and Control the Epidemic of COVID-19 in China: Multicenter User Profiling Study (Preprint)

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kai Gong ◽  
Zhong Xu ◽  
Zhefeng Cai ◽  
Yuxiu Chen ◽  
Zhanxiang Wang
Keyword(s):  
Prevention And Control ◽  
Control Measures ◽  
User Profiling ◽  
Kappa Score ◽  
Factors Affecting ◽  
Logistic Regression Models ◽  
The Public ◽  
The Social ◽  
Novel Coronavirus ◽  
And Control

BACKGROUND During the spread of the novel coronavirus disease (COVID-19), internet hospitals in China were engaged with epidemic prevention and control, offering epidemic-related online services and medical support to the public. OBJECTIVE The aim of this study is to explore the role of internet hospitals during the prevention and control of the COVID-19 outbreak in China. METHODS Online epidemic-related consultations from multicenter internet hospitals in China during the COVID-19 epidemic were collected. The counselees were described and classified into seven type groups. Symptoms were recorded and compared with reported patients with COVID-19. Hypochondriacal suspicion and offline visit motivation were detected within each counselees’ group to evaluate the social panic of the epidemic along with the consequent medical-seeking behaviors. The counselees’ motivation and the doctors’ recommendation for an offline visit were compared. Risk factors affecting the counselees’ tendency of hypochondriacal suspicion and offline visit motivation were explored by logistic regression models. The epidemic prevention and control measures based on internet hospitals were listed, and the corresponding effects were discussed. RESULTS A total of 4913 consultations were enrolled for analysis with the median age of the counselees at 28 years (IQR 22-33 years). There were 104 (2.12%) healthy counselees, 147 (2.99%) hypochondriacal counselees, 34 (0.69%) exposed counselees, 853 (17.36%) mildly suspicious counselees, 42 (0.85%) moderately suspicious counselees, 3550 (72.26%) highly suspicious counselees, and 183 (3.72%) severely suspicious counselees. A total of 94.20% (n=4628) of counselees had epidemic-related symptoms with a distribution similar to those of COVID-19. The hypochondriacal suspicion (n=2167, 44.11%) was common. The counselees’ motivation and the doctors’ recommendation for offline visits were inconsistent (<i>P</i>&lt;.001) with a Cohen kappa score of 0.039, indicating improper medical-seeking behaviors. Adult counselees (odds ratio [OR]=1.816, <i>P</i>&lt;.001) with epidemiological exposure (OR 7.568, <i>P</i>&lt;.001), shortness of breath (OR 1.440, <i>P</i>=.001), diarrhea (OR 1.272, <i>P</i>=.04), and unrelated symptoms (OR 1.509, <i>P</i>&lt;.001) were more likely to have hypochondriacal suspicion. Counselees with severe illnesses (OR 2.303, <i>P</i>&lt;.001), fever (OR 1.660, <i>P</i>&lt;.001), epidemiological exposure history (OR 1.440, <i>P</i>=.01), and hypochondriacal suspicion (OR 4.826, <i>P</i>&lt;.001) were more likely to attempt an offline visit. Reattending counselees (OR 0.545, <i>P</i>=.002) were less motivated to go to the offline clinic. CONCLUSIONS Internet hospitals can serve different types of epidemic counselees, offer essential medical supports to the public during the COVID-19 outbreak, reduce the social panic, promote social distancing, enhance the public’s ability of self-protection, correct improper medical-seeking behaviors, reduce the chance of nosocomial cross-infection, and facilitate epidemiological screening, thus, playing an important role on preventing and controlling COVID-19.

scholarly journals Community grid management is an important measure to contain the spread of novel coronavirus pneumonia (COVID-19)

2020 ◽  
Vol 148 ◽  
Author(s):  
Chen Ling ◽  
Xianjie Wen
Keyword(s):  
Control Measures ◽  
World Health ◽  
The Novel ◽  
Source Of Infection ◽  
Global Pandemic ◽  
The World ◽  
Novel Coronavirus ◽  
Health Organization ◽  
And Control ◽  
Grid Management

Abstract The outbreak of novel coronavirus pneumonia (coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19)), declared as a ‘global pandemic’ by the World Health Organization (WHO), is a public health emergency of international concern (PHEIC). The outbreak in multiple locations shows a trend of accelerating spread around the world. China has taken a series of powerful measures to contain the spread of the novel coronavirus. In response to the COVID-19 pandemic, in addition to actively finding effective treatment drugs and developing vaccines, it is more important to identify the source of infection at the community level as soon as possible to block the transmission path of the virus to prevent the spread of the pandemic. The implementation of grid management in the community and the adoption of precise management and control measures to reduce unnecessary personnel movement can effectively reduce the risk of pandemic spread. This paper mainly describes that the grid management mode can promote the refinement and comprehensiveness of community management. As a management system with potential to improve the governance ability of community affairs, it may be helpful to strengthen the prevention and control of the epidemic in the community.

scholarly journals Experiences and Practices in the Current Prevention and Control of the Novel Coronavirus Pneumonia in China

2020 ◽  
pp. 1-10 ◽  
Author(s):  
Shen Shao ◽  
Zichen Zhou ◽  
Yue Li ◽  
Shuyu Liu ◽  
Lu Lu ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Prevention And Control ◽  
Lung Diseases ◽  
Health And Safety ◽  
International Health ◽  
Control Measures ◽  
The Novel ◽  
New Type ◽  
Prevention And Control Measures ◽  
Novel Coronavirus ◽  
And Control

ABSTRACT Since December 2019, several new infectious diseases, mainly lung diseases caused by novel coronavirus infections, have been discovered in Wuhan, Hubei Province. With the spread of the epidemic, cases in other regions of China and abroad have been confirmed. This sudden outbreak of a new type of infectious disease has seriously threatened people’s health and safety, and China has adopted strong prevention and control measures in response. To provide a reference for international health emergency management workers, this article summarizes, from an academic perspective, the main prevention and control measures taken in China.

scholarly journals Analysis of Potential Risk of COVID-19 Infections in China Based on a Pairwise Epidemic Model

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Xiaofeng Luo ◽  
Shanshan Feng ◽  
Junyuan Yang ◽  
Xiao-Long Peng ◽  
Xiaochun Cao ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Epidemic Model ◽  
Reproduction Number ◽  
Economic Benefits ◽  
Control Measures ◽  
Contact Tracing ◽  
The Novel ◽  
The Public ◽  
Disease Propagation ◽  
Long Run ◽  
Novel Coronavirus

The ongoing outbreak of the novel coronavirus pneumonia (also known as COVID-19) has triggered a series of stringent control measures in China, such as city closure, traffic restrictions, contact tracing and household quarantine. These containment efforts often lead to changes in the contact pattern among individuals of the population. Many existing compartmental epidemic models fail to account for the effects of contact structure. In this paper, we devised a pairwise epidemic model to analyze the COVID-19 outbreak in China based on confirmed cases reported during the period February 3rd--17th, 2020. By explicitly incorporating the effects of family clusters and contact tracing followed by household quarantine and isolation, our model provides a good fit to the trajectory of COVID-19 infections and is useful to predict the epidemic trend. We obtained the average of the reproduction number $R=1.494$ ($95\%$ CI: $1.483-1.507$) for Hubei province and $R=1.178$ ($95\%$ CI: $1.145-1.158$) for China (except Hubei), suggesting that some existing studies may have overestimated the reproduction number by neglecting the dynamical correlations and clustering effects. We forecasted that the COVID-19 epidemic would peak on February 13th ($95\%$ CI: February $9-17$th) in Hubei and 6 days eariler in the regions outside Hubei. Moreover the epidemic was expected to last until the middle of March in China (except Hubei) and late April in Hubei. The sensitivity analysis shows that ongoing exposure for the susceptible and population clustering play an important role in the disease propagation. With the enforcement of household quarantine measures, the reproduction number $R$ effectively reduces and epidemic quantities decrease accordingly. Furthermore, we gave an answer to the public concern on how long the stringent containment strategies should maintain. Through numerical analysis, we suggested that the time for the resumption of work and production in China (except Hubei) and Hubei would be the middle of March and the end of April, 2020, respectively. These constructive suggestions may bring some immeasurable social-economic benefits in the long run.

scholarly journals Early dynamics of transmission and control of COVID-19: a mathematical modelling study

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Adam J Kucharski ◽  
Timothy W Russell ◽  
Charlie Diamond ◽  
Yang Liu ◽  
John Edmunds ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Reproduction Number ◽  
Control Measures ◽  
Transmission Model ◽  
The Novel ◽  
Transmission Potential ◽  
Travel Restrictions ◽  
Gates Foundation ◽  
Novel Coronavirus ◽  
And Control ◽  
Over Time

AbstractBackgroundAn outbreak of the novel coronavirus SARS-CoV-2 has led to 46,997 confirmed cases as of 13th February 2020. Understanding the early transmission dynamics of the infection and evaluating the effectiveness of control measures is crucial for assessing the potential for sustained transmission to occur in new areas.MethodsWe combined a stochastic transmission model with data on cases of novel coronavirus disease (COVID-19) in Wuhan and international cases that originated in Wuhan to estimate how transmission had varied over time during January and February 2020. Based on these estimates, we then calculated the probability that newly introduced cases might generate outbreaks in other areas.FindingsWe estimated that the median daily reproduction number, Rt, declined from 2.35 (95% CI: 1.15-4.77) one week before travel restrictions were introduced on 23rd January to 1.05 (95% CI: 0.413-2.39) one week after. Based on our estimates of Rt,we calculated that in locations with similar transmission potential as Wuhan in early January, once there are at least four independently introduced cases, there is a more than 50% chance the infection will establish within that population.InterpretationOur results show that COVID-19 transmission likely declined in Wuhan during late January 2020, coinciding with the introduction of control measures. As more cases arrive in international locations with similar transmission potential to Wuhan pre-control, it is likely many chains of transmission will fail to establish initially, but may still cause new outbreaks eventually.FundingWellcome Trust (206250/Z/17/Z, 210758/Z/18/Z), HDR UK (MR/S003975/1), Gates Foundation (INV-003174), NIHR (16/137/109)

scholarly journals Evaluation of the awareness level of Healthcare workers toward NCOVID-2019 in Pakistan

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Bushra Imdad ◽  
Uzair Abbas ◽  
Ambrina Qureshi ◽  
Sehrish Mohsin ◽  
Amna Shireen ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Healthcare Workers ◽  
Close Contact ◽  
Control Measures ◽  
Basic Knowledge ◽  
Infection Prevention And Control ◽  
Healthcare Facilities ◽  
Prevention And Control Measures ◽  
Novel Coronavirus ◽  
And Control ◽  
Awareness Level

AbstractBackgroundNovel Coronavirus infection disease 2019 (NCOVID-19), caused by the corona virus, was first spotted in Wuhan, city of China, December 2019. The NCOVID-19 virus is spread among individuals through close communication in the form of droplets, not via airborne. Those individuals are at risk of infection who are in close contact with a NCOVID-19 patient or who take care of NCOVID-19 patients. Infection prevention and control measures are critical to prevent the possible spread of any infection in healthcare facilities. Therefore, healthcare workers should be aware of basic knowledge and all procedures concerning prevention and protection from NCOVID-19.ObjectiveThe objective of this study was to evaluate the awareness level of healthcare workers toward NCOVID-2019 in Pakistan.Material and MethodsA questionnaire was generated according to WHO information that was circulated among the healthcare workers of different hospitals and medical institutes of Pakistan. Calculated sample size was 650.ConclusionHealthcare workers have insufficient knowledge of preventive measures and infection control. The authorities must take initiatives on urgent basis to increase the awareness among the healthcare workers and general public also so that the drastic circumstances can be avoided in the developing country like Pakistan.

scholarly journals A Branching Process Model for the Novel Coronavirus (Covid-19) Spread in Greece

2021 ◽  
pp. 63-69
Author(s):  
Ioanna A. Mitrofani ◽  
◽  
Vasilis P. Koutras
Keyword(s):  
Process Model ◽  
Branching Process ◽  
Early Stage ◽  
Branching Processes ◽  
Relevant Literature ◽  
Control Measures ◽  
The Novel ◽  
Simple Exponential Smoothing ◽  
Novel Coronavirus ◽  
And Control

The novel coronavirus (covid-19) was initially identified at the end of 2019 and caused a global health care crisis. The increased transmissibility of the virus, that led to high mortality, raises the interest of scientists worldwide. Thus, various methods and models have been extensively discussed, so to study and control covid-19 transmission. Mathematical modeling constitutes an important tool to estimate key parameters of the transmission and predict the dynamic of the virus. More precisely, in the relevant literature, epidemiology is considered as a classical application area of branching processes, which are stochastic individual-based processes. In this paper, we develop a classical Galton-Watson branching process approach for the covid-19 spread in Greece at the early stage. This approach is structured in two parts, initial and latter transmission stages, so to provide a comprehensive view of the virus spread through basic and effective reproduction numbers respectively, along with the probability of an outbreak. Additionally, the effectiveness of control measures is discussed, based on a simple exponential smoothing model, which is used to build a non-mitigation scenario. Finally, our primary aim is to model all transmission stages through branching processes in order to analyze the first semiannual spread of the ongoing coronavirus pandemic in the region of Greece.

The Novel Coronavirus SARS Cov-2 and its evolving impact on Ophthalmic Practice

2020 ◽  
Vol 5 (Special) ◽  
Keyword(s):  
World Health Organisation ◽  
World Health ◽  
The Novel ◽  
Movement Restriction ◽  
Mortality And Morbidity ◽  
Risk Of Mortality ◽  
Difficulty Breathing ◽  
Containment Measures ◽  
Novel Coronavirus ◽  
And Control

SARS-Cov-2 is a novel coronavirus that is believed to have emerged from the wet markets in Wuhan, Hubei Province in China late in December 2019. The spread of this virus was soon declared to be a pandemic by the World Health Organisation, with nearly 1 million cases reported worldwide by 31st March 2020 [1]. Those who contract the virus can go on to develop coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) – with symptoms commonly presenting as fever, dry cough and associated fatigue [2]. These symptoms can progress to difficulty breathing or shortness of breath, chest pain or pressure, loss of speech or movement [3]. The high risk of mortality and morbidity of this illness has resulted in worldwide awareness and control campaigns, resulting in varying levels of movement restriction and containment measures implemented to reduce the rate of transmission of SARS-Cov-2.

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