ABSTRACT
COVID-19 vaccine was launched in India on 16 January 2021, prioritizing health care workers which included medical students. We aimed to assess vaccine hesitancy and factors related to it among undergraduate medical students in India. An online questionnaire was filled by 1068 medical students across 22 states and union territories of India from 2 February - 7 March 2021. Vaccine hesitancy was found among 10.6%. Concern regarding vaccine safety and efficacy, hurried testing of vaccines prior to launch and lack of trust in government agencies predicted COVID-19 vaccine hesitancy. Risk perception regarding contracting COVID-19 vaccine reduced COVID-19 vaccine hesitancy as well as hesitation in participating in COVID-19 vaccine trials. Choosing between the two available vaccines (Covishield and Covaxin) was considered important by medical students both for themselves and their future patients. Covishield was preferred to Covaxin by students. Majority of those willing to take the COVID-19 vaccine felt that it was important for them to resume their clinical posting, face-to-face classes and get their personal life back on track. Around three-fourths medical students viewed that COVID-19 vaccine should be made mandatory for both health care workers and international travellers. Prior adult vaccination didnt have an effect upon COVID-19 vaccine hesitancy. Targeted awareness campaigns, regulatory oversight of vaccine trials and public release of safety and efficacy data and trust building activities could further reduce COVID-19 vaccine hesitancy among medical students.
Subject(s)
COVID-19ABSTRACT
Background:Airports pose a possible threat in facilitating global disease transmission within the community which may be prevented by rigorous systematic entry-exit screening. With the aim to capture the perception of stakeholders associated with COVID-19 on barriers and facilitators of airport screening at Jaipur International Airport. Also, to assess key outcomes viz. total passengers screened, suspected cases, & confirmed cases.Methods:An inductive-deductive mix-method thematic analysis was conducted to capture qualitative data of key stakeholders. Additionally, quantitative data was obtained from the Rajasthan Medical & Health Department team deployed for COVID-19 airport screening.Results:Jaipur International Airport screened 4565 passengers (Males=4073 and Females=492) with 23 suspected cases during an outlined period of declaration of Pandemic to Lockdown in India (11th to 24th March 2020). Total 65 passengers had travel history from China (3 from Wuhan). The mean average age of passengers was 40.95 ± 7.8 years. The average screening time per passenger was 2-3 minutes with a load of 25-90 passengers per team per flight. Fishbone analysis of screening challenges revealed poor cooperation of passengers, masking symptoms, apprehension, and stigma related to quarantine. Moreover, inadequate human resources and changing guidelines overburdened healthcare providers. But, perception of risk, and social responsibility of travelers together with supportive organization behavior act as facilitators. Overall, groundwork on airport screening was insightful to propose key action areas for screening.Conclusions:Globally, COVID-19 has an impact on health infrastructure and international travel. International coordination with streamlined screening will go a LONG way in virus containment.
Subject(s)
COVID-19 , Masked HypertensionABSTRACT
Background: Understanding the epidemiology of COVID19 is important for design of effective control measures at local level. We aimed to estimate the serial interval and basic reproduction number for Jodhpur, India and to use it for prediction of epidemic size for next one month. Methods: Contact tracing of SARSCoV2 infected individuals was done to obtain the serial intervals. Aggregate and instantaneous R0 values were derived and epidemic projection was done using R software v4.0.0. Results: From among 79 infector infectee pairs, the estimated median and 95 percentile values of serial interval were 5.98 days (95% CI 5.39 to 6.65) and 13.17 days (95% CI 11.27 to 15.57), respectively. The overall R0 value in the first 30 days of outbreak was 1.64 (95% CI 1.12 to 2.25) which subsequently decreased to 1.07 (95% CI 1.06 to 1.09). The instantaneous R0 value over 14 days window ranged from a peak of 3.71 (95% CI 1.85 -2.08) to 0.88 (95% CI 0.81 to 0.96) as on 24 June 2020. The projected COVID-19 case-load over next one month was 1881 individuals. Reduction of R0 from 1.17 to 1.085 could result in 23% reduction in projected epidemic size over the next one month. Conclusion: Aggressive testing, contact-tracing and isolation of infected individuals in Jodhpur district resulted in reduction of R0. Further strengthening of control measures could lead to substantial reduction of COVID19 epidemic size. A data-driven strategy was found useful in surge capacity planning and guiding the public health strategy at local level.