Optimal Deployment of Cordon Sanitaire with Available Testing Capacity

During the COVID-19 pandemic, authorities in many places have implemented various countermeasures, including setting up a cordon sanitaire to restrict population movement. This paper proposes a bi-level programming model to deploy a limited number of parallel checkpoints at each entry link around the cordon sanitaire to achieve a minimum total waiting time for all travelers. At the lower level, it is a transportation network equilibrium with queuing for a fixed travel demand and given road network. The feedback process between trip distribution and trip assignment results in the predicted waiting time and traffic flow for each entry link. For the lower-level model, the method of successive averages is used to achieve a network equilibrium with queuing for any given allocation decision from the upper level, and the reduced gradient algorithm is used for traffic assignment with queuing. At the upper level, it is a queuing network optimization model. The objective is the minimization of the system’s total waiting time, which can be derived from the predicted traffic flow and queuing delay time at each entry link from the lower-level model. Since it is a nonlinear integer programming problem that is hard to solve, a genetic algorithm with elite strategy is designed. An experimental study using the Nguyen-Dupuis road network shows that the proposed methods effectively find a good heuristic optimal solution. Together with the findings from two additional sensitivity tests, the proposed methods are beneficial for policymakers to determine the optimal deployment of cordon sanitaire given limited resources.

Knowledge Hiding: One of the Primary Reasons behind the Rapid Spread of the Novel Coronavirus COVID-19

The world is battling out the pandemic of Covid-19. The World Health Organization (WHO) is jointly acting upon the same daily, which is evident from the ‘situation reports.’ The pandemic, which saw its origin in Wuhan, has spread across the world within a short span of under two months. While the pandemic has effectively instilled a situation of cordon sanitaire across the globe, the virus seems to show no respite. This study collates different sources and establishes the human tendency of knowledge hiding as the prime reason for the spread of such colossal magnitudes. The study underlines the notion by examining some of the critical cases and situations that have unfolded in the very recent past.

Malaysia’s Health Systems Response to COVID-19

This study aimed to highlight the COVID-19 response by the Ministry of Health (MOH) and the Government of Malaysia in order to share Malaysia’s lessons and to improve future pandemic preparedness. The team conducted a rapid review using publicly available information from MOH, PubMed, and World Health Organisation (WHO) Global Research on Coronavirus Disease Database to compile Malaysia’s responses during the COVID-19 pandemic. Measures taken between 31 December 2019 and 3 June 2020 were classified into domains as well as the pillars described in the WHO COVID-19 Strategic Preparedness and Response Plan (WHO SPRP). Malaysia’s response incorporated all pillars in the WHO SPRP and consisted of five domains, (i) whole-of-government, (ii) cordon sanitaire/lockdown, (iii) equity of access to services and supports, (iv) quarantine and isolation systems, and (v) legislation and enforcement. Some crucial measures taken were activation of a centralised multi-ministerial coordination council where MOH acted as an advisor, with collaboration from non-government organisations and private sectors which enabled an effective targeted screening approach, provision of subsidised COVID-19 treatment and screening, isolation or quarantine of all confirmed cases, close contacts and persons under investigation, with all strategies applied irrespective of citizenship. This was provided for by way of the Prevention and Control of Infectious Diseases Act 1988. A combination of these measures enabled the nation to contain the COVID-19 outbreak by the end of June 2020.

Monitoring the newly infected cases of COVID-19 data weekly: A Survival Data Analysis (SDA) perspective

This paper attempts to fit the best survival model distribution for the Malaysian COVID-19 new infections experience of Wave I/II and Wave III using the well-known Survival Data Analysis (SDA) procedures. The purpose of fitting such models is to reduce the complexity and frequency of the COVID-19 new infections data into a single measure of scale and shape parameters to enable monitoring of weekly trends, undertake short term forecasts and estimate duration when the virality will be contained. The analysis showed a Weibull distribution is the best statistical fit for Malaysia’s new infections COVID-19 data. The estimates of scale and shape parameters for Wave I/II was 0.05901 and 2.48956 and for Wave III was 0.06463 and 2.5693, respectively. Much higher hazard force in Wave III is due to weaker control in the implementation of cordon sanitaire measures imposed in containing the virality spread. Based on the survival function the short-term forecasts showed that the number of new infections projected to decline from 23,282 cases in 28th week to 22,017 cases in 31st week. Similarly, based on the cumulative hazard function the duration estimated for containing the virality completely projected to stretch over another 19.6 weeks under the prevailing conditions.

Life Disrupted and Regenerated: Coping With the ‘New Normal’ Creative Arts in the Time of Coronavirus

A global pandemic caused by COVID-19 virus since December 2019 has developed into a fearsome situation more than any common global contagion. In combating COVID-19 worldwide, governments instigated a precautionary cordon sanitaire in various degrees. Live music, cinema and film festivals were inevitably cancelled, causing artists to become alienated from their audience. This paper aims to illuminate how practitioners of the creative industry cope with the drastic disruption due to the COVID-19 outbreak as well as the means of regenerating ‘life’, which refers to that of a creative artist in a narrower sense, and to that of the industry in a broader sense. Adopting a combined methodology of autoethnography and virtual ethnography, the authors explore their encounters with the informants and the development of the creative arts scene. The subject of disruption and regeneration in the creative arts industry is approached through feasible methods and tools they could render in this unique lived experience. They hope to construct a view containing some perspectives on the transcendence of creative practitioners from the disruption to the survival of the pandemic’s impact, as well as the regeneration of how creative arts would persevere in the ‘new normal’ of the post-COVID-19 era.

The Effects of the COVID-19 Pandemic on Food Security in Rural and Urban Settlements in Benin: Do Allotment Gardens Soften the Blow?

A Rapid Food Security Appraisal among 240 rural and urban dwellers in southern Benin was conducted, using univariate and bivariate analyses, to evaluate the effects of the imposed COVID-19 ‘cordon sanitaire’ on food consumption patterns. As this is one of the first empirical studies on the COVID-19 food security nexus, we found that the raging pandemic has affected the food security pillars (availability, accessibility, utilization, and stability) in both rural and urban areas, within and outside the cordon sanitaire. The steepest decline was observed among respondents who live inside the cordon sanitaire, where rural producers and urban inhabitants without access to allotment gardens were hit hard. Increased food prices, disruptions in food logistics, and inability to work due to movement restrictions were most frequently indicated as reasons for the decline. Access to allotment gardens effectively supported households in mitigating the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on the food crisis.

Optimal Design of Cordon Sanitaire for Regular Epidemic Control

The outbreak of COVID-19 has disrupted our regular life. Many state and local authorities have enforced a cordon sanitaire for the protection of sensitive areas. Travelers can only travel across the cordon after being qualified. This paper aims to propose a method to determine the optimal deployment of cordon sanitaire in terms of the number of parallel checkpoints at each entry link for regular epidemic control. A bilevel programming model is formulated where the lower-level is the transport system equilibrium with queueing to predict traffic inflow, and the upper-level is queueing network optimization, which is an integer nonlinear programming. The objective of this optimization is to minimize the total operation cost of checkpoints with a predetermined maximum waiting time. Note that stochastic queueing theory is used to represent the waiting phenomenon at each entry link. A heuristic algorithm is designed to solve the proposed bilevel model where the method of successive averages (MSA) is adopted for the lower-level model, and the genetic algorithm (GA) is adopted for the upper-level model. An experimental study is conducted to demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed method and algorithm. The results show that the methods can find a good heuristic optimal solution. These methods are useful for policymakers to determine the optimal deployment of cordon sanitaire for hazard prevention and control.

Aspecte juridice privind sănătatea publică în contextul istoric al marilor epidemii

"Although the concept of public health is a modern one and the scientific understanding of infectious diseases and their transmissibility is less than 200 years old, even ancient and medieval societies reacted in an organized manner to the great epidemics and the threat they posed to public order and their very existence. In spite of the fact that the sources of contagious diseases were often vaguely or wrongly understood, some of the measures that these older societies began to take (the quarantine, cordon sanitaire, isolating the sick, disinfecting objects) proved effective and have been continuously perfected along the centuries. This study will attempt to discuss, using the historical method, some of the most important normative non-medical interventions in the history of epidemics that have survived to this day. Due to the legal nature of this study, we will not discuss the medical aspects of public health during pandemics, like vaccination, treatment, diagnosis or medical care. The focus of this study will be decisively European, although some passing references will be made to North America."