Maintaining Cross-Border Cargo Movements Between Jordan and Saudi Arabia During the COVID-19 Pandemic

One of Jordan's essential border crossings, the Al-Omari border crossing, is 1 of 3 land crossings between Jordan and Saudi Arabia and is located 160 km west of the capital city of Amman. Given its economic importance and essential role in the functioning of food supply networks across the region, Jordan undertook evidence-driven actions to keep the border crossing safely open during the initial phase of the COVID-19 pandemic. Cross-border coordination and collaboration, specifically with international contact tracing and case management, have been critical elements of Jordan's response. While several bottlenecks and delays led to documented clusters of infections among truck drivers, this case study illustrates the use of evidence to mitigate disease exposure and spread. Plans to manage public health threats need to consider sustainable strengthened surveillance and laboratory capacities coupled with efficient cross-border communication and coordination plans implemented across multiple sectors engaged in cross-country health.

A qualitative exploration of children's willingness to take the COVID-19 vaccine in Jordan

Vaccine willingness has an important role in COVID-19 adult vaccination programs in many countries. However, there are limited data about vaccine willingness among children, which is largely confined to parents' opinions. With the emergence of new variants affecting this age group, children's opinions on COVID vaccination are important. This study aimed to explore children's willingness and opinions regarding COVID-19 vaccination. Focus group discussions, including children, were carried out in different Jordanian schools. Purposive sampling was implemented to select students of different socioeconomic statuses. A total of 54 school students aged 6–14 years from three schools participated in nine focus groups. Overall, participating children were willing to take the COVID-19 vaccine, and three overarching themes described their view regarding the vaccine: benefits, motivators, and hesitancy and barriers. Participating children reported that the vaccine could be beneficial as it protects them from being infected, and they are motivated to take it as it has been approved for children in other countries. However, some children were hesitant regarding taking the vaccine as it could be harmful, and they believed that COVID-19 is not severe in children. In conclusion, this study shows a clear willingness among participants from primary and secondary schools to take the COVID-19 vaccine. Such outcomes should be tested further on a larger scale to deliver future recommendations to include younger children in the vaccination program © 2023 Tareq L. Mukattash et al. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/)

COVID-19 Outbreak in Jordan: A 150 Days of Successful Response and Re-Open Strategy

This study aims to provide analyses and assessment of Jordan’s responses and actions in the first 150 days since March 2, 2020. The present study focuses on the emerging cases COVID-19 in Jordan, investigates the socio-economic impacts of COVID-19, and assesses the concise responses and initiatives to lessen such impacts. Analytical method was adopted in the present study using quantitative and qualitative data captured from official sources and news reports. The findings show that Jordan was so far capable to flatten the curve, and effectively controlled the outbreaks within four to six weeks under strict isolation and curfew measures. Jordan was ranked 132nd in the world based on 1136 positive cases. The sources of external transmissions were 10.2% by trucks drivers crossing the borders, and 18.4% by returning expatriates. Several features enabled Jordan to flatten the curve such as closed contacts tracing and testing capabilities, integration their COVID-19 responses and national initiatives with digital technology and Apps utilization, and providing of transparent and up-to-date information and updates through several media about this unprecedented situation. Jordan is attempting to lessen the socio-economic impacts of prolonged closure of economic sectors on vulnerable population by establishing a fund that tackles the most influenced entities that are informal labor and SMEs. Jordan was exemplified as a successful preparedness and proactive intervention case to combat the unprecedented infectious COVID-19 outbreaks. After 30 days since the lockdown was relaxed, less than 10 cases per day were recorded. Accordingly, Jordan pandemic status is in a moderate risk stage based on the issued re-open strategy and adopted risk assessment matrix. © 2021, The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG.