Challenges Faced by Working Mothers and Housewives during Online Education of their Children

Background: WHO recognized COVID-19 a pandemic on March 12, 2020 and National Health Commission officially declared it as a Class-B infectious disease. The technological advancements enabled the teaching staffs to keep their students involved during this period of COVID-19 pandemic. Online classes become the efficient medium to learn by staying at home. Aim: To find out the challenges faced by mothers during online learning in order to devise a systematic plan for smooth and effective learning in case of another crises like COVID-19. Method: It was a cross sectional study carried out at CMH LMC&IOD, in which a user-defined questionnaire was introduced to the participants which were mothers of school going children from all over the city. The questionnaire got 161 responses in total, but two were incomplete so 159 were considered while doing the analysis. The results were analyzed using SPSS25. Results: In this study,46.9% mothers were of age 40 and above and 47.5% were between 31 -40 years of age. Rest were 30 and below 57.5 % children used laptops to study online, while 34.4 % used a mobile. 7% had their own tablets and only 1.1 used desktops. Only 14.4% mothers supervised their children during all this time. 58.7% however managed supervising studies with other tasks and 26.9% said their children could study online unsupervised. Only 20% mothers thought their children are taking interest in online schooling. 54.5% found their children struggling37.5% mothers thought that their children were learning much less through this online mode of education and 43.8% thought that online learning is somewhat less. Conclusion: Among the various the challenges faced by working mothers and housewives during online education of their children the most important challenge was to keep their children focused on study. We discovered that the online study had little effect on grades because most mothers had to take on the role of teacher as well as supervising.

Is this the tip of the iceberg six month outcomes for patients declining endoscopic investigation

Introduction: The COVID 19 pandemic has had a profound effect on our lives and the way that medical services are delivered. During the initial stage of the pandemic in Britain, as well as a national lock down to reduce the spread of the virus, non-urgent care at hospitals was significantly reduced or stopped. JAG and BSG recommended that all but the most urgent endoscopic examination should be delayed. Most endoscopic examinations were postponed from the end of March 2020 to June 2020. On recommencement of endoscopic services, all patients who had had an endoscopic procedure delayed were invited to re-attend. This study explores the outcomes of those that deferred or cancelled their appointments. Aims & Methods: A retrospective observational study of patients referred for an endoscopic investigation at Sheffield Teaching Hospital NHS trust between March 2020 and June 2020. All patients who were referred for an endoscopy during the period of lockdown were reviewed. At resumption of endoscopic services, those patients that initially declined to attend for their endoscopy were included. A case note review of each patient was undertaken. Demographics, presentation, investigations performed and outcomes were obtained. The reason that the patient did not initially attend was recorded when available. Outcomes over the following 6 months were recorded including endoscopy investigation performed, radiological investigation performed and diagnosis of malignancy. Descriptive statistics were used to describe this cohort of patients. Results: At resumption of endoscopic services 66 patients initially declined an investigation. The median age was 65 with a range of 30-90 and an interquartile range 23. 55% of the cohort was male. Both upper and lower endoscopies had been requested for 22 patients, 29 had been referred for a colonoscopy and 15 had been referred for a gastroscopy. Over the following 6 months, 10 (13.6%) patients subsequently had an endoscopic investigation performed. The median days from resumption of endoscopic services to procedure was 60.5 with an interquartile range of 24.75 and a range of 45 to 190 days. A radiological investigation was performed in 28 (42.4%) patients. No endoscopic or radiological investigations were undertaken in 27 (41%) of patients. A malignant diagnosis was found in 4 (6%) patients. Of those patients not undertaking any investigations, 13/27 had resolution of their symptoms, 7/27 did not proceed due to concerns regarding the COVID 19 virus, 2/27 due to reasons unrelated the COVID 19 virus and in 5/27 no clear reason could be found. Conclusion: In this cohort of patients who were initially reluctant to attend for endoscopic examination, completion of investigations over the following 6 months occurred infrequently. Almost half of patients who delayed their endoscopy also did not have a radiological investigation. Although a significant proportion of patients' symptoms resolved, without s further investigation the prevalence of underlying malignant diagnosis is unknown. Although there is patient concern regarding COVID 19 transmission, risk of infection acquired whilst attending for endoscopy appears to be very low. There may still be a further hidden human cost of COVID 19 caused by incomplete investigation.

Characterizing the Qatar advanced-phase SARS-CoV-2 epidemic.

The overarching objective of this study was to provide the descriptive epidemiology of the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) epidemic in Qatar by addressing specific research questions through a series of national epidemiologic studies. Sources of data were the centralized and standardized national databases for SARS-CoV-2 infection. By July 10, 2020, 397,577 individuals had been tested for SARS-CoV-2 using polymerase-chain-reaction (PCR), of whom 110,986 were positive, a positivity cumulative rate of 27.9% (95% CI 27.8-28.1%). As of July 5, case severity rate, based on World Health Organization (WHO) severity classification, was 3.4% and case fatality rate was 1.4 per 1,000 persons. Age was by far the strongest predictor of severe, critical, or fatal infection. PCR positivity of nasopharyngeal/oropharyngeal swabs in a national community survey (May 6-7) including 1,307 participants was 14.9% (95% CI 11.5-19.0%); 58.5% of those testing positive were asymptomatic. Across 448 ad-hoc testing campaigns in workplaces and residential areas including 26,715 individuals, pooled mean PCR positivity was 15.6% (95% CI 13.7-17.7%). SARS-CoV-2 antibody prevalence was 24.0% (95% CI 23.3-24.6%) in 32,970 residual clinical blood specimens. Antibody prevalence was only 47.3% (95% CI 46.2-48.5%) in those who had at least one PCR positive result, but 91.3% (95% CI 89.5-92.9%) among those who were PCR positive > 3 weeks before serology testing. Qatar has experienced a large SARS-CoV-2 epidemic that is rapidly declining, apparently due to growing immunity levels in the population.

Characterizing the Qatar advanced-phase SARS-CoV-2 epidemic (preprint)

ABSTRACT Background: Qatar has a population of 2.8 million, over half of whom are expatriate craft and manual workers (CMW). We aimed to characterize the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) epidemic in Qatar. Methods: A series of epidemiologic studies were conducted including analysis of the national SARS-CoV-2 PCR testing and hospitalization database, community surveys assessing current infection, ad-hoc PCR testing campaigns in workplaces and residential areas, serological testing for antibody on blood specimens collected for routine clinical screening/management, national Coronavirus Diseases 2019 (COVID-19) death registry, and a mathematical model. Results: By July 10, 397,577 individuals had been PCR tested for SARS-CoV-2, of whom 110,986 were positive, a positivity cumulative rate of 27.9% (95% CI: 27.8-28.1%). PCR positivity of nasopharyngeal swabs in a national community survey (May 6-7) including 1,307 participants was 14.9% (95% CI: 11.5-19.0%); 58.5% of those testing positive were asymptomatic. Across 448 ad-hoc PCR testing campaigns in workplaces and residential areas including 26,715 individuals, pooled mean PCR positivity was 15.6% (95% CI: 13.7-17.7%). SARS-CoV-2 antibody prevalence was 24.0% (95% CI: 23.3-24.6%) in 32,970 residual clinical blood specimens. Antibody prevalence was only 47.3% (95% CI: 46.2-48.5%) in those who had at least one PCR positive result, but it was 91.3% (95% CI: 89.5-92.9%) among those who were PCR positive >3 weeks before serology testing. There were substantial differences in exposure to infection by nationality and sex, reflecting risk differentials between the craft/manual workers and urban populations. As of July 5, case severity rate, based on the WHO severity classification, was 3.4% and case fatality rate was 1.4 per 1,000 persons. Model-estimated daily number of infections and active-infection prevalence peaked at 22,630 and 5.7%, respectively, on May 21 and May 23. Attack rate (ever infection) was estimated at 53.5% on July 12. R0 ranged between 1.45-1.68 throughout the epidemic. Rt was estimated at 0.70 on June 15, which was hence set as onset date for easing of restrictions. Age was by far the strongest predictor of severe, critical, or fatal infection. Conclusions: Qatar has experienced a large SARS-CoV-2 epidemic that is rapidly declining, apparently due to exhaustion of susceptibles. The epidemic demonstrated a classic susceptible-infected-recovered 'SIR' dynamics with a rather stable R0 of about 1.6. The young demographic structure of the population, in addition to a resourced public health response, yielded a milder disease burden and lower mortality than elsewhere.