Search results

This chapter examined the financial effects of COVID-19 pandemic on the Nigerian tourism by disaggregating the tourism sector into transportation industry, accommodation industry, travelling agencies, resorts/tourist site and regulatory agencies. Specifically, this study only targeted 240 key players in the Nigerian Tourism sector in Lagos state while the sourced data were analysed using Pearson correlation analysis. The result revealed that the emergence of COVID-19 pandemic has a negative statistical influence on both the transportation and accommodation industry. The financial implication of this result is that the emergence of COVID-19 pandemic increased the cost of transport, sharply reduced revenue inflow into the transportation and accommodation industry Again, the emergence of COVID-19 pandemic exerted positive significant influence on Travel agency and resort/tourist site. However, the emergence of COVID-19 pandemic exerted positive insignificance influence on regulatory agency. Hence, the study concluded that the emergence of the COVID-19 pandemic increased the cost of transport, sharply reduced revenue inflow into accommodation industry, increased travel agency and resort/tourist site costs. Premised on this, the study recommends that the federal government should ensure that the cost of transportation is subsidized, as this would help to correct the negative effect of COVID-19 on the Nigerian transportation industry.

The purpose of the study is to highlight the potential of the sensor based smartphone in assessing the covid-19 cases. Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is a noxious pandemic affecting the respiratory system of the human and leading to the severe acute respiratory syndrome, sometimes causing death. COVID-19 is a highly transmittable disease that spreads from an infected person to others. In this regard, a smart device is required to monitor the COVID-19 infected patients by which widespread pandemic can be reduced.

In this paper, an electrochemical sensor-enabled smartphone has been developed to assess the COVID-19 infected patients. The data-enabled smartphone uses the Internet of Things (IoT) to share the details with the other devices. The electrochemical sensor enables the smartphone to evaluate the ribonucleic acid (RNA) of COVID-19 without the nucleic acid and feeds the data into the data server by using a smartphone.

The obtained result identifies the infected person by using the portable electrochemical sensor-enabled smartphone, and the data is feed into the data server using the IoT. Whenever an infected person moves outside the restricted zone, the data server gives information to the concerned department.

The developed electrochemical sensor-enabled smartphone gives an accuracy of 81% in assessing the COVID-19 cases. Thus, through the developed approach, a COVID-19 infected person can be identified and the spread can be minimized.

Corona Virus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) is a deadly virus named after severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2; it affects the respiratory system of the human and sometimes leads to death. The COVID-19 mainly attacks the person with previous lung diseases; the major cause of lung diseases is the exposure to nitrogen dioxide (NO2) for a longer duration. NO2 is a gaseous air pollutant caused as an outcome of the vehicles, industrial smoke and other combustion processes. Exposure of NO2 for long-term leads to the risk of respiratory and cardiovascular diseases and sometimes leads to fatality. This paper aims to analyze the NO2 level impact in India during pre- and post-COVID-19 lockdown. The study also examines the relationship between the fatality rate of humans because of exposure to NO2 and COVID-19.

Spatial analysis has been conducted in India based on the mortality rate caused by the COVID-19 using the data obtained through Internet of Medical things. Meanwhile, the mortality rate because of the exposure of NO2 has been conducted in India to analyze the relationship. Further, NO2 level assessment is carried out using Copernicus Sentinel-5P satellite data. Moreover, aerosol optical depth analysis has been carried out based on NASA’s Earth Observing System data.

The results indicate that NO2 level has dropped 20-year low because of the COVID-19 lockdown. The results also determine that the mortality rate because of long-time exposure to NO2 is higher than COVID-19 and the mortality rate because of COVID-19 may be a circumlocutory effect owing to the inhalation of NO2.

Using the proposed approach, the COVID-19 spread can be identified by knowing the air pollution in major cities. The research also identifies that COVID-19 may have an effect because of the inhalation of NO2, which can severe the COVID-19 in the human body.

The COVID-19 outbreak occurred in Wuhan region of China has significantly affected the exports and production of countries. Digitalization and technological developments have increased with the Industry 4.0, and COVID-19 measures accelerated this process. In this study, the impacts of COVID-19 pandemic have been investigated on international trade and production in European countries and Turkey. Accordingly, the cointegration relations between variables were examined with Westerlund panel cointegration test. As a result of the cointegration test, it is determined that there are long-term relationships between variables. The causality relationships between variables are analyzed with the Dumitrescu–Hurlin panel causality test. Causality analyses show that there is a unidirectional causality relationship from COVID-19 cases and deaths to export, while there is a unidirectional causality relationship from COVID-19 cases to production. The empirical findings demonstrate that COVID-19 outbreak has a significant impact on production and export processes in European countries and Turkey.

Having easy access to the flu and COVID-19 vaccination sites may be important for controlling the spread of the infection. Chicago implemented a broad strategy of opening COVID-19 vaccination locations across the city in a variety of locations.

We defined access as having vaccinations within one mile. Data came from the American Community Survey (ACS), Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), Social Vulnerability Index (SVI), Illinois Department of Public Health (IDPH) and the Chicago Data Portal. We calculated the street-network distance from the population-weighted centroid of census tracts to the nearest vaccination sites before, during and post COVID-19 pandemic. We compared the demographics of census tracts within one mile to those greater than one mile during each period.

People age 65 and above and with disabilities saw significant decreases in flu vaccination site access to locations within one mile of their census tract in 2020–2021 compared to 2018–2019. The COVID-19 vaccination sites mimic these flu vaccination site patterns, suggesting a severe lack of geographic access for a group likely to experience limited mobility. Results combining instances of both flu and COVID-19 vaccination sites suggest that making COVID-19 vaccination sites available at flu shot site locations would significantly reduce the number of people with limited mobility lacking geographic access.

Policymakers should explore how this expanded network of vaccination locations could facilitate permanent improvements to access to vaccination sites for people with disabilities.

Background: Fear has been a common response to the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic throughout the world. In Mauritius, the outbreak of COVID-19 has been an exceptional occurrence requiring stringent confinement of the population. In this study, we have explored people’s reactions to COVID-19 during confinement, with emphasis on fear and the impact of news on the level of fear.

Methods: An anonymized online survey was carried out during confinement. Participation was voluntary. Participants reported fear level on a scale from 1-10, where no fear scored 1 and maximum fear scored 10. Participants reported the impact of news on their fear level on a scale of 1-10, where 1 represented no impact and 10 represented maximum impact. Participants reported the status of information received about COVID-19 on a scale of 1-10 where 1 represented no information on COVID-19 and 10 represented maximum information on COVID-19.

Results: The self-rated level of fear during confinement had a mean of 5.09 with 95%CI [4.70, 5.47]. This increased to a mean of 6.39 with 95%CI [6.00-6.78] at the prospect of confinement being lifted. The difference was statistically significant (paired-sample T-test, p<0.001). With regard to the impact of news on fear of COVID-19, the mean for local news was 5.97 with 95%CI [5.59, 6.34] whereas that of worldwide news was 6.86 with 95%CI [6.50, 7.23]. Worldwide news had a more significant impact (paired-sample T-test, p<0.001). The information score about COVID-19 had a mean of 5.12 with 95%CI [4.71, 5.53].

Conclusions: Participants experienced a moderate level of fear of COVID-19 during confinement which increased at the prospect of confinement being lifted, implying that people felt safer during confinement. Their fear was influenced more by international news than by local news. Overall participants reported that they were moderately well informed about the COVID-19 pandemic.

The purpose of this paper is to indicate the current situation of the COVID-19 outbreak in India, the world's second-most populous country. India reported its first COVID-19 case in the southern province of Kerala in late January 2020. Since then, the outbreak has spread to other provinces and union territories, with the highest number of cases reported in Maharashtra province as of 24 May 2020.

This paper presents the age- and gender-wise analysis of COVID-19 patients in Maharashtra province and the whole nation.

It shows that 75% of them belong to the age group of 21–60 years and the age above 50 years has a very high fatality rate of 14.52% in Maharashtra. This analysis also shows that 76% of COVID-19 cases are in males in the nation. The data indicates that in the nation, 75.3% of the deaths are in the age group over 60 years and 86% of cases of death had diabetes-related comorbidity, hypertension, chronic kidney problems and heart problems. In India, the case-fatality rate, which estimates the proportion of deaths among identified confirmed cases, is 2.93% as of 24 May, which is significantly less than that many countries.

To the best of the author’s knowledge, this is the first attempt to indicate the current situation of the COVID-19 outbreak in India based on age and gender.

The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic has helped Taiwan gain widespread recognition and commendation. Taiwan's low infection rate is praiseworthy not merely because it was once considered a high-risk region but because it has weathered the COVID-19 storm without resorting to draconian measures. The purpose of this paper is thus an effort to understand and explain how Taiwan has been able to achieve a fine balance between disease containment and everyday life.

According to the COVID-19 Government Response Event Dataset, Taiwan’s actions focus mainly on the management of health resource allocation, external border restrictions, quarantine of high-risk cases and the establishment of a centralized crisis task force. On this basis, the authors highlight and discuss the critical factors for Taiwan’s success against COVID-19. Caveats are also detailed to caution some aspects of the lessons to be drawn from it.

Setting clear goals, effective leadership, active community participation and innovative solutions are four pillars of Taiwan’s success against COVID-19. The island believes that once stringent border controls are strictly executed, virus-free citizens can relax inside. However, those who would like to learn from Taiwan’s experience should be mindful of the likelihood of asymptomatic spread of the disease as well as the unique geographical and social characteristics that contribute to Taiwan’s approach to COVID-19.

The authors’ analysis of Taiwan adds anecdotes to the scholarly discussion on public health emergency management, suggesting that anti-COVID-19 policy would get its intended outcomes only if government leaders and community stakeholders collaborate to set clear goals ahead and implement them with innovative solutions.

COVID-19) is the present global problem. The potential for food borne transmission of COVID-19 becomes a present discussed public health issue. At present, there are many reports on the food contamination with severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). It is no doubt that the viral contamination in food is possible. The authors summarize and discuss on food contamination, food safety and COVID-19 outbreak.

The authors give a commentary on the available data on food contamination during COVID-19 outbreak. Based on basic food safety principles, the authors build an argument on available recommendation regarding food safety during the COVID-19 outbreak.

It still lacks in many details of food safety during COVID-19 pandemic. Public health personnel usually refer to classical food safety principles for recommending general people about food safety, but it still lacks for updated specific data on COVID-19. The present commentary gives some few ideas and it is necessary to have further specific research on this specific issue.

This is an original commentary regarding the new contemporary problem on food contamination, food safety and COVID-19 outbreak.

Decentralised administrative arrangements and the active function of local government organisations are essential to tackle crisis effectively. Using Bangladesh as a case study, this paper examines the central and local government administrative arrangements during COVID-19 pandemic.

This study applies qualitative content analysis and interviews to explore the local government’s role in Bangladesh’s COVID-19 management by interviews of 18 participants including government officials, experts, non-government organisations (NGOs) representatives, and the general public. This paper also analysed academic papers, policy documents and other publicly available documents, including newspaper reports.

The Constitution of Bangladesh intensified the active participation of local government in each administrative unit through decentralised administrative management. This paper however reveals that the administrative arrangement during the COVID-19 pandemic in Bangladesh was primarily a centrally led system. The local government was not sufficiently involved, nor had it integrated into the planning and coordination process. This indicated the absence of active decentralised administration.

This study fills the research gap of the administrative pattern and local relations in COVID-19 management by exploring the local government’s role during the catastrophic situation and highlights the importance of decentralised administrative actions in managing the crisis.