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The monetary and psycho-social ramifications of the COVID-19 pandemic have been extensive and unimaginable around the globe. The purpose of this study was to have a psycho-social analysis of people confronting this situation and its impact in the situation of a health crisis on them.

In the current study, participants were divided according to their different backgrounds and professions based on the types of measures taken by the Pakistani government to limit the spread of the virus and people who are not disturbed by any of the measurement categories but are troubled by the coronavirus. The interviews based on five open-ended questions were conducted with the eight participants, comprising questions that helped participants in remembering and realizing the purpose of the interview in the mode of an open questioning. Phenomenological interpretative analysis was used to understand how participants make meaning of the phenomenon being studied, an in-depth analysis of the human subject was considered in its singularity, and personal accounts and experiences were noted regarding this pandemic.

The results indicated that the participant’s experiences were marked by stress, insecurity, anger, fear, anxiety, traces of painful emotions and a feeling of weakness. Also the prevalence of unknown precariousness and vulnerability of coronavirus aggravated the psychological frailness among people existing in an anxiety-prone situation created by the novel coronavirus. Confronted with these painful experiences, the participants however, used a variety of cognitive and behavioral efforts which needs to be strengthened by psychological care.

This study based on qualitative method was performed on diverse socio-professional levels, giving an insight to what they are undergoing, their current fears, desires and their feeling. The outcome of this study reveals traces of uncertainty, anxiety, fears, insecurity and hidden imminent death from coronavirus, therefore highlighting a need for immediate psychological interventions.

This study explores the individual understanding regarding current coronavirus pandemic situation on subjective lived experiences and psychological health in an anxiety-prone context manifested by the health crisis created by the novel corona virus.

Coronavirus disease 2019 is one of the novel diseases formed by a dreadful virus called Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus 2. Various countries are affected by this viral disease, and many countries declare a lockdown with several rules and conditions. To prevent this rapid viral transmission, various researchers have introduced different mobile applications. This paper aims to study issues like viral transmission, mortality rates, vaccination rates, etc. and also provides suitable solutions based on the statistical analysis with the assistance of the Six-Sigma Define-Measure-Analyse-Improve-Control (DMAIC) concept.

Statistical analysis is done for different countries, and the required solutions are provided by using the DMAIC procedure. This application has the ability to represent the current risk status of the user and notify them to secure themselves.

The proposed work suggests the Aarogya Setu application to prevent large viral transmission by affording many preventive measures. This application also issues the current risk status of each individual user. Hence, it gives improved results in avoiding high viral transmission.

The proposed six-sigma DMAIC concept also affords the control measures to prevent viral transmission. Hence, the suggested application has the highest chance of avoiding the rapid viral transmission.

This article examines the susceptibility of cryptocurrencies to coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) induced panic in comparison with major stock indices.

The author employs the Bayesian structural vector autoregression to examine the phenomenon in Bitcoin, Ethereum and Litecoin from 2nd January 2020 to 30th June 2021. A similar analysis is conducted for major stock indices, namely S&P 500, FTSE 100 and SSE Composite for comparison purposes.

The results suggest that cryptocurrencies returns suffered immensely in the early days of the COVID-19 outbreak following declarations of the disease as a global health emergency and eventually a pandemic in March 2020. However, the returns for all three cryptocurrencies recovered by April 2020 and remained resistant to further COVID-19 panic shocks. The results are dissimilar to those of S&P 500, FTSE 100 and SSE Composite values which were vulnerable to COVID-19 panic throughout the timeframe to June 2021. The results further reveal strong predictive power of Bitcoin on prices of other cryptocurrencies.

The article provides evidence to support the cryptocurrency as a safe haven during COVID-19 school of thought given their resistance to subsequent shocks during COVID-19. Thus, the author stresses the need for diversification of investment portfolios by including cryptocurrencies given their uniqueness and resistance to shocks during crises.

The author makes use of the novel corona virus panic index to examine the magnitude of shocks in prices of cryptocurrencies during COVID-19.

In the wake of COVID-19, most of the countries at present, are in a dilemma whether to extend lockdown at the cost of economy or to improve the hard-hit economy by lifting the lockdown. It is indicated by the reputed organizations and medical fraternity that corona will stay here for a longer period contrary to the earlier assumptions. Hence the purpose of this study is to suggest a strategy which balances both preventive measures and economic losses to control the pandemic.

There is a need for the identification of the critical success factors (CSFs) for developing COVID-19 preventive strategies to control the pandemic with an economy-centric approach.

The six CSFs identified are “Effective communication”, “Social distancing”, “Adopting new technology”, “Modify the rules and regulation at workplace”, “Sealing the borders of the territory” and “Strong leadership and government control”.

The study has a vital contribution to literature as no previous study has identified CSFs for developing COVID-19 preventive strategies while focusing on the economy.

Further, these identified CSFs are helpful in medium and longer-term planning which is required to rebalance and re-energize the economy following this epidemic crisis.

The study has given a model that depicts the cause and influence relationship between the key factors in the system under question. The importance of study increases many fold, as resources are limited and the outcome of the study could be used to channelize the resources effectively.

A raíz del surgimiento de COVID-19, en la actulidad la mayoría de los países se encuentran en un dilema entre extender el confinamiento a costa de la economía o mejorar la afectada economía levantando las cuarentenas. Diversas organizaciones incluyendo la comunidad médica indican que el coronavirus permanecerá por un período más largo, contrario a las suposiciones anteriores. En este contexto, es muy necesaria una estrategia que equilibre tanto las medidas preventivas como las pérdidas económicas.

Existe la necesidad de identificar los factores críticos de éxito (CSF) para desarrollar estrategias preventivas de COVID-19 para controlar la pandemia con un enfoque centrado en la economía.

Los seis CSF identificados son “Comunicación efectiva”, “Distanciamiento social”, “Adopción de nuevas tecnologías”, “Modificar las reglas y regulaciones en el lugar de trabajo”, “Sellar las fronteras del territorio” y “Liderazgo fuerte y control gubernamental”.

Este estudio tiene una contribución relevante para la literatura, ya que ningún estudio anterior ha identificado CSF para desarrollar estrategias preventivas de COVID-19 mientras se enfoca en la economía.

Además, los CSF identificados son útiles en la planificación a mediano y largo plazo que se requiere para reequilibrar y reactivar la economía después de esta crisis epidémica.

El estudio ha proporcionado un modelo que describe la relación de causa-efecto entre los factores clave del sistema analizado. La importancia del estudio se hace más evidente ya que ante recursos limitados, los resultados podría utilizarse para canalizar los recursos de manera eficaz.

Como resultado do surgimento do COVID-19, a maioria dos países está atualmente em um dilema entre estender o confinamento às custas da economia ou melhorar a economia afetada suspendendo as quarentenas. Várias organizações, incluindo a comunidade médica, indicam que o coronavírus permanecerá por um período mais longo, ao contrário das suposições anteriores. Nesse contexto, uma estratégia que equilibre medidas preventivas e perdas econômicas é muito necessária.

É necessário identificar os Fatores Críticos de Sucesso (CSF) para desenvolver estratégias preventivas ao COVID-19 para controlar a pandemia com uma abordagem centrada na economia.

Os seis CSF identificados são “Comunicação eficaz”, “Distanciamento social”, “Adoção de novas tecnologias”, “Modificar regras e regulamentos no local de trabalho”, “Selar as fronteiras do território” e “Liderança forte e controle governamental”.

Este estudo tem uma contribuição relevante para a literatura, uma vez que nenhum estudo anterior identificou a CSF para desenvolver estratégias preventivas ao COVID-19 com foco na economia.

Além disso, os CSF identificados são úteis no planejamento de médio e longo prazo necessário para reequilibrar e reativar a economia após esta crise epidêmica.

O estudo forneceu um modelo que descreve a relação causa-efeito entre os fatores-chave do sistema analisado. A importância do estudo fica mais evidente uma vez que, diante de uma situação de recursos limitados, os resultados poderiam ser usados para canalizar recursos de forma eficaz.

The purpose of this paper is to analyze and build a deep learning model that can furnish statistics of COVID-19 and is able to forecast pandemic outbreak using Kaggle open research COVID-19 data set. As COVID-19 has an up-to-date data collection from the government, deep learning techniques can be used to predict future outbreak of coronavirus. The existing long short-term memory (LSTM) model is fine-tuned to forecast the outbreak of COVID-19 with better accuracy, and an empirical data exploration with advanced picturing has been made to comprehend the outbreak of coronavirus.

This research work presents a fine-tuned LSTM deep learning model using three hidden layers, 200 LSTM unit cells, one activation function ReLu, Adam optimizer, loss function is mean square error, the number of epochs 200 and finally one dense layer to predict one value each time.

LSTM is found to be more effective in forecasting future predictions. Hence, fine-tuned LSTM model predicts accurate results when applied to COVID-19 data set.

The fine-tuned LSTM model is developed and tested for the first time on COVID-19 data set to forecast outbreak of pandemic according to the authors’ knowledge.

The purpose of this research is to investigate the short-term capital markets' reactions to the public announcement first local detection of novel corona virus (COVID 19) cases in 12 major Asian capital markets.

Using the constant mean return model and the market model, an event study methodology has been implied to determine the cumulative abnormal returns (CARs) of 10 pre and post-event trading days. The statistical significance of the data was assessed using both parametric and nonparametric test statistics.

First discovery of local COVID 19 cases had a substantial impact on all 12 Asian markets on the event day, as shown by statistically significant negative average abnormal return (AAR) and cumulative average abnormal return (CAAR). The single factor ANOVA result has also demonstrated that there is no variability among 12 regional markets in terms of short-term market responses. Furthermore, there is little evidence that these major Asian stock market indices differ significantly from the FTSE All-World Index which might suggest possible spillover impact and co-integration among the major Asian capital markets. The study further discovers that market capitalization and liquidity did not have any significant impact on market reaction to announcement.

The study's contribution might have been compromised by the absence of socio-demographic, technical, financial and other significant policy factors from the analysis.

These findings will be considerably helpful in tackling this unprecedented epidemic issue for personal and institutional investors, industrial and economic experts, government and policymakers in assessing the market in special circumstances, diversifying risk and developing financial and monetary policy proposals.

This paper is the first to examine the effects of local COVID 19 detection announcement on major Asian capital markets. This study will add to the literature by investigating unusual market returns generated by infectious illness outbreaks and the overall market efficiency and investors' behavioral pattern of major Asian capital markets.

The purpose of this paper is to inspect whether the people in a public place maintain social distancing. It also checks whether every individual is wearing face mask. If both are not done, the drone sends alarm signal to nearby police station and also give alarm to the public. In addition, it also carries masks and drop them to the needed people. Nearby, traffic police will also be identified and deliver water packet and mask to them if needed.

The proposed system uses an automated drone which is used to perform the inspection process. First, the drone is being constructed by considering the parameters such as components selection, payload calculation and then assembling the drone components and connecting the drone with the mission planner software for calibrating the drone for its stability. The trained yolov3 algorithm with the custom data set is being embedded in the drone’s camera. The drone camera runs the yolov3 algorithm and detects the social distance is maintained or not and whether the people in public is wearing masks. This process is carried out by the drone automatically.

The proposed system delivers masks to people who are not wearing masks and tells importance of masks and social distancing. Thus, this proposed system would work in an efficient manner after the lockdown period ends and helps in easy social distance inspection in an automatic manner. The algorithm can be embedded in public cameras and then details can be fetched to the camera unit same as the drone unit which receives details from the drone location details and store it in database. Thus, the proposed system favours the society by saving time and helps in lowering the spread of corona virus.

It can be implemented practically after lockdown to inspect people in public gatherings, shopping malls, etc.

Automated inspection reduces manpower to inspect the public and also can be used in any place.

This is the original project done with the help of under graduate students of third year B.E. CSE. The system was tested and validated for accuracy with real data.

In Ghana, even though scholars and experts in the field of economics and finance have expressed their opinions and perceptions on the effect of the pandemic on the Ghana Stock Exchange, there has been no study conducted to that effect. This study, therefore, aimed at examining the impact of COVID-19 on the stock returns on the Ghana stock exchange. This would help policy makers and investors in making efficient decisions.

The outbreak of the novel COVID-19 has been a thorn in the flesh of the world in its entirety, affecting many aspects of life including the stock market. This study, therefore, examined the impact of the outbreak on the stock returns of the Ghana Stock Exchange. The study utilized data from the All Share Prices of the Ghana stock exchange, commonly known as the Ghana stoke exchange composite index (GSECI) for analysis. The data covered the period before the outbreak of COVID-19 and during the outbreak. It was revealed that the Ghana stock exchange experienced better returns on the market before the outbreak of the virus. The outbreak of COVID-19 has led to wide variations in the market increasing the risk of investments. The exponential General Autoregressive Conditional Heteroscedasticity (EGARCH) (1, 1) model also reveals that the outbreak of COVID-19 has a significant negative effect on the returns in the market. The market in these periods of COVID-19 is highly volatile. It is recommended that investors should carefully consider risk mitigation strategies to enable them diversify their investments effectively and efficiently against the high risk associated with the market in this COVID-19 era.

It was revealed that the Ghana stock exchange experienced better returns on the market before the outbreak of the virus. The outbreak of COVID-19 has led to wide variations in the market increasing the risk of investments. The EGARCH (1, 1) model also revealed that the outbreak of COVID-19 had a significant negative effect on stock returns in the market. The market during these periods of COVID-19 was viewed as highly volatile.

The outbreak of COVID-19 is hence deduced to have a negative impact on the Ghana stock exchange. However, the knowledge of how the market has been affected by the disease, it is important that financial risk mitigation studies be undertaken. This goes beyond what this study has done. The study can further be expanded to include other important economic variables such as GDP, inflation, exchange rates and the likes in to the model.

Investors should carefully consider risk mitigation strategies to enable them diversify their investments effectively and efficiently against the high risk associated with the market in this COVID-19 era.

It is also important that investors consider diversification of their investments in order to reduce the risk in their investments. It will be more appropriate for most investors to invest with companies such as banks and the telecommunications companies listed on the on the market. This is because most of the telecommunication companies in these times have taken advantage and are making good profit on their businesses. Likewise, some of the financial institutions are considered essential institution in these times. Investing in industries such as manufacturing and the oil and gas sector may be more risky.

The decline in economic and financial market indicators could be credited to the failure of most business entities, organizations and firms which are struggling to sustain their operations in these times of COVID-19. These also include firms listed on the Ghana stock exchange with whom investors transact their daily businesses. However, about 70% of the Ghanaian economy heavily depends on these business and firms found in the private and informal sector. According to the Ghana Statistics Service COVID-19 Business Tracker Survey, about 131,000 businesses expressed their uncertainties with the business environment and also faced the challenge of financial accessibility. The study is appropriate to unearth the true effect and offer policy interventions.

This conceptual paper aims to study the Corona Virus Disease-19 (COVID-19) pandemic’s impact on branded functional beverages consumption in India. There is a sincere effort to critically review the role of some vital determinants of consumer behaviour and to develop an integrated model for branded functional beverages consumption behaviour.

A systematic and extensive literature review was performed by searching electronic databases relating to consumer acceptance and purchase behaviour of functional beverages in India from 2000 to 2021. This study also reviewed very recent literature on the potential impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on global consumer traits, buying behaviour, marketing trends and psychographic behaviour.

The extensive review of the literature yielded results that shed light on some crucial factors propelling branded functional beverages’ consumption behaviour in India, especially in the COVID-19 scenario.

The study is based purely on a conceptual understanding of branded functional beverages’ consumption behaviour among Indian consumers. The conceptual framework proposed here results from the review of past literature. Therefore, the scientific world is invigorated to test further the implications presented in this study empirically.

The conceptual framework proposed here concerning consumer behaviour in functional beverages would guide the food marketers to segment and position their functional food offerings, mainly beverage variants, in the post-pandemic scenario. Moreover, the study findings enable policymakers to craft food policies to uphold the noble cause of moulding a healthy generation.

The COVID-19 pandemic has virtually shattered our food system and modified our associations with food in many different ways. The perception of health risks associated with COVID-19 might have influenced people’s food purchase and consumption behaviours. It is proposed that health-conscious people would prefer more health-promoting foods and beverages to strengthen their immunity. Several reports disclose that food consumers in India demand functional foods and beverages more extensively than before to include in their daily food basket. A detailed literature review revealed an evident shortage of research studies regarding consumer behaviour in functional beverages in India. No prior research works could be identified as to why consumers prefer functional beverages to benefit their overall health and immunity and what guides them to purchase or not to purchase such products, especially in the post-pandemic scenario. Therefore, this research work would be a primer that would guide future studies investigating consumers’ attitudes and purchasing behaviour of branded functional beverages.

The purpose of this study is to examine the impact of the corona virus (COVID-19) pandemic on stock returns of listed cargo shipping companies.

The author employs the events study methodology to examine this phenomenon. A sample of 49 listed cargo shipping companies in the container, dry bulk and tanker sub-sectors from Asia, North America, and Europe was selected and their daily closing stock prices from 1st January 2020 to 31st December 2020 were utilized.

The results reveal that there was an overall negative overreaction to the announcement by World Health Organization (WHO) that declared COVID-19 a pandemic. The approvals of USD 857 billion stimulus package by the European Union (EU) and Pfizer vaccine by Food and Drug Administration (FDA) in USA received slight positive reactions. The Greek, Singaporean and Taiwanese shipping stocks were the least affected stocks as their respective shipping industries remained resilient during 2020.

This study provides evidence to confirm the fact that COVID-19 has affected stock markets; however the impact is un parallel among cargo shipping stocks of different countries.

The majority of studies have conducted country level analyses of the COVID-19 and stock market performance phenomenon. However, there have been sectoral disparities in terms of their susceptibility to economic shocks from COVID-19. This study's focal point is on the cargo shipping sector which synonymous with other sectors has not been immune to the current pandemic. The study also extends the timeline of events to incorporate those from June to December 2020.