Employee disclosures in the grocery industry before the COVID-19 pandemic

We provide evidence on the consumer staples industry's commitment and accountability to employees prior to the COVID-19 pandemic by analysing their employee-related disclosures in annual reports. A high level of disclosure exists from 2004 to 2019 with 93 percent of the industry disclosing some information about employees. The highest categories of disclosure are remuneration, health and safety, and training and development. We find that total disclosure is significantly related to having employee share ownership, a Big 4 auditor, a larger board of directors, a majority independent board, independent chair, an audit and nomination committee and higher ROA. © 2021 Accounting and Finance Association of Australia and New Zealand

Impacts of lockdown during the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic on patients presenting with cervicofacial infection of odontogenic origin: a comparative study.

The SARS-CoV-2 pandemic caused unprecedented disruption to primary and secondary healthcare services. Our aim was to explore whether the pandemic had had any impact on patients presenting with cervicofacial infections (CFI) of odontogenic origin to secondary care and management. Comparative analysis was carried out evaluating prospective and retrospective consecutively admitted patients with a diagnosis of CFI of odontogenic origin in the COVID-19 lockdown period from 15 March to 15 June 2020 and pre-COVID-19 during the same period of the previous year. Data included patients' demographics, comorbidities, systemic inflammatory response syndrome (SIRS) status on admission, clinical features, prior treatment in primary care, source of referral, SARS-COV-2 antigen status, treatment received in secondary care, intraoperative findings, and whether escalation of the level of care was required. Across both cohorts there were one hundred and twenty-five (125) patients admitted with CFI of odontogenic origin, with a 33% reduction (n=75 (2019) vs n=50 (2020)) in number of patients admitted during COVID-19 lockdown. There was no difference between the cohorts in terms of age (p=0.192), gender (p=0.609) or major comorbidities (p=0.654). Proportionally more patients in the COVID-19 group presented with SIRS (p=0.004). This group of patients persisted with symptoms for longer before presenting to secondary care (p=0.003), more delay from hospital admission to surgical intervention (p<0.005) and had longer hospital stays (p=0.001). More patients required extraoral surgical drainage during COVID-19 (p=0.056). This study suggests that the COVID-19 lockdown has had adverse effects on the presentation of CFI of odontogenic origin and its management within a Regional Acute Maxillofacial Service. Commissioners and clinicians should endeavour to plan for adequate primary and secondary care provision during any future local lockdowns to ensure that patient care is optimised.