A Surveillance System Controlling Covid-19 in Office Environments

COVID-19 is one of the pandemic diseases that has hit the world including Sri Lanka. He has a virus that became the target of bids to stop its spread. Including the implementation of health protocols, to provide information about the spread of the virus emergency response, detection services for suspicious persons infected with the virus, and programs to contain the spread of the virus ensuring that the whole of Sri Lanka gets vaccinated. Here, the research focuses on the minimal spread of the face mask in the office e nvironment a n i dentification system that uses a deep learning model that prioritizes object recognition for the identification o f e mployees w ho w ear a f ace m ask and detects social distancing and crowd gathering, if any if there is a violation, it will inform via a voice notification. L oss o f Smell after the next component. One person can use one disposable card to check the smell of sniffing. E ach d isposable c ard has QR codes, and all QR codes are encrypted by adding data. The user scans the QR code on their ticket and then scratches off and smelled the smelling area and selected the corresponding scent on the disposable card. Employee company attendance is a proposed automated attendance system using facial recognition. Because it requires minimal human influence a nd o ffers a high level of accuracy and marking employee attendance and employee body temperature measurement, facial recognition will appear to be a practical option. This system aims to provide a high level of protection. Automated Attendance systems that detect and recognize are safe, fast, and time-consuming savings. This technique can also be used to identify an unknown person. © 2022 IEEE.

Mental Health in Children during the Covid-19 Pandemic: The Experience of a North American Tertiary Care Pediatric Emergency Department

BACKGROUND: The COVID-19 pandemic is a unique distressing period of experience to the public with strict physical, social and economic restrictions. Moreover, the impact of this experience on children with school closures, online education and social isolation may have a profound psychosocial impact. OBJECTIVE(S): The objective was to evaluate and characterize the changes in mental health issues in children presenting to a large tertiary pediatric emergency department (ED) before and during the COVID-19 pandemic. DESIGN/METHODS: We performed a retrospective chart review of all children who presented with any mental health related diagnosis according to the ICD-10 classification from March 1, 2019 to February 28, 2020, and during pandemic periods (March 1, 2020 to February 28, 2021). Data on presentation, diagnosis and outcome were extracted and compared using Chi square test and z tests as appropriate. RESULT(S): Our centre experienced a 39% reduction (57,522 visits vs. 35,485 visits) in all ED visits but a significant increase (p=0.002) in mental health issues during the pandemic period of 5.22% compared to 4.88% during the previous year (2811/57522 visits vs. 1959/35485). Among 1,959 children presenting to ED during the pandemic, the majority (53%) were female children compared to a male predominance of 55% before the pandemic. The highest peak of visits was observed in the 14 to 16 years age group, irrespective of gender and pre/pandemic periods. The category that included eating disorders showed a distinct rise of 46% (p<0.001) during the pandemic period. Two categories Intentional Self-Harm and External Causes of Morbidity with Undetermined Intention did not show any difference, while Disorders of psychological development had a significantly low 46.5% (P<0.001) presentation during pandemic period. There wasn't an increase in presentation of depression and anxiety to ED during COVID-19. However, admissions were significantly high (p<0.001) during the pandemic 46.5% compared to the pre-pandemic (41.6%) period. CONCLUSION(S): During the pandemic, the percentage of visits related to mental health diagnoses in children increased significantly although the overall ED visits for all patients declined. As COVID-19 is expected to stay with us for the foreseeable future, we hope that this research will provide health care workers with the knowledge and understanding to optimize their approach to children at the ED.

Reactogenicity to ChAdOx1 nCoV-19 vaccine in health care workers: A multicenter observational study in Sri Lanka.

Introduction: The acceptability of a vaccine is an important factor during mass vaccination programs and this is largely dependent on the symptoms of local and systemic reactogenicity. There is paucity of data on the systemic and local reactions experienced by COVD-19 vaccine recipients in South Asia. Objectives: To identify the early local and systemic reactogenicity of ChAdOx1 nCoV-19 vaccine. Method: A multicenter observational study was performed to identify the reactogenicity to ChAdOx1 nCoV-19 vaccine in healthcare workers following the first dose. Results: There were 4478 participants with a median age of 42 years (IQR 34-51) and 2863 (63.9%) were females. At least one symptom of reactogenicity was reported by 4151 (92.7%). Local reactions were reported by 2612 (58.3%). Systemic reactions were bodyache (3244,72.4%), fatigue (2379, 53.1%), headache (2277, 50.8%), fever (2290, 51.1%), feverishness (1912, 42.7%) and chills (2295, 51.3%). Lower age (p<0.0001) and female gender (p 0.002) were associated with a higher frequency of developing systemic reactions. There was no association between reactogenicity and comorbidities. There were 342 (7.6%) reports of palpitations and one case of ventricular bigeminy. There was one report of anaphylaxis and hospital admissions were reported by 24 (0.5%). One vaccine recipient was managed for possible aseptic meningitis. Conclusion: This study demonstrates that early systemic and local reactions are common. Systemic reactions were more frequent in females and in the younger population. Most symptoms were self- limiting and did not require medical attention or hospital admission. ChAdOx1 nCoV-19 vaccine appears safe in the studied population.

A deep dive into testing and management of COVID-19 for Australian high performance and professional sport. (Special Issue: COVID19 - moving forward.)

The purpose of testing for any communicable disease is to support clinicians in the diagnosis and management of individual patients and to describe transmission dynamics. The novel coronavirus is formally named SARS-CoV-2 and the clinical disease state resulting from an infection is known as COVID-19. Control of the COVID-19 pandemic requires clinicians, epidemiologists, and public health officials to utilise the most comprehensive, accurate and timely information available to manage the rapidly evolving COVID-19 environment. High performance sport is a unique context that may look towards comprehensive testing as a means of risk mitigation. Characteristics of the common testing options are discussed including the circumstances where additional testing may be of benefit and considerations for the associated risks. Finally, a review of the available technology that could be considered for use by medical staff at the point of care (PoC) in a high-performance sporting context is included.

Increased peripheral blood neutrophil activation phenotypes and NETosis in critically ill COVID-19 patients (preprint)

BackgroundIncreased inflammation is a hallmark of COVID-19, with pulmonary and systemic inflammation identified in multiple cohorts of patients. Definitive cellular and molecular pathways driving severe forms of this disease remain uncertain. Neutrophils, the most numerous leukocytes in blood circulation, can contribute to immunopathology in infections, inflammatory diseases and acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS), a primary cause of morbidity and mortality in COVID-19. Changes in multiple neutrophil functions and circulating cytokine levels over time during COVID-19 may help define disease severity and guide care and decision making. MethodsBlood was obtained serially from critically ill COVID-19 patients for 11 days. Neutrophil oxidative burst, neutrophil extracellular trap formation (NETosis), phagocytosis and cytokine levels were assessed ex vivo. Lung tissue was obtained immediately post-mortem for immunostaining. ResultsElevations in neutrophil-associated cytokines IL-8 and IL-6, and general inflammatory cytokines IP-10, GM-CSF, IL-1b, IL-10 and TNF, were identified in COVID-19 plasma both at the first measurement and at multiple timepoints across hospitalization (p < 0.0001). Neutrophils had exaggerated oxidative burst (p < 0.0001), NETosis (p < 0.0001) and phagocytosis (p < 0.0001) relative to controls. Increased NETosis correlated with both leukocytosis and neutrophilia. Neutrophils and NETs were identified within airways and alveoli in the lung parenchyma of 40% of SARS-CoV-2 infected lungs. While elevations in IL-8 and ANC correlated to COVID-19 disease severity, plasma IL-8 levels alone correlated with death. ConclusionsCirculating neutrophils in COVID-19 exhibit an activated phenotype with increased oxidative burst, NETosis and phagocytosis. Readily accessible and dynamic, plasma IL-8 and circulating neutrophil function may be potential COVID-19 disease biomarkers.

Natural SARS-CoV-2 infection in kept ferrets, Spain (preprint)

We found SARS-CoV-2 RNA in 6 of 71 ferrets (8.4%) and isolated the virus from one rectal swab. Natural SARS-CoV-2 infection does occur in kept ferrets, at least under circumstances of high viral circulation in the human population. However, small ferret collections are probably unable to maintain prolonged virus circulation.