ABSTRACT
Aim of this study is to observe the clinical characteristics of patients hospitalized for Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) in relation to the vaccination status and the clinical outcome. We retrospectively examined 107 consecutive COVID-19 hospitalizations from December 2021 to February 2022 in Monsignor Galliano Hospital (Acqui Terme, ASL AL) during the fourth pandemic wave. 72% of patients were hospitalized for acute respiratory failure with radiological picture of pneumonia (for-COVID hospitalizations). 28% of patients were hospitalized for other causes with occasional finding of a positive Sars-Cov-2 swab (with-COVID hospitalizations). 42% of patients were not vaccinated, 29% had undergone a full vaccination course (3 doses), 23% had two doses and 3% only one dose. All patients without vaccination were hospitalized for acute respiratory failure. More than 3 comorbidities were present in 49% of patients, and arterial hypertension in 50%. Unexpectedly, mortality was higher in patients vaccinated with two doses. In conclusion in the fourth pandemic wave, in comparison to the others, not all patients were hospitalized for respiratory failure and pneumonia, and the presence of at least three comorbidities is a risk factor for hospitalization regardless of the vaccination status.
ABSTRACT
The recent pandemic due to SARS-CoV-2 has brought to light the need for strategies to mitigate contagion between human beings. Apart from hygiene measures and social distancing, air ventilation highly prevents airborne transmission within enclosed spaces. Among others, educational environments become critical in strategic planning to control the spread of pathogens and viruses amongst the population, mainly in cold conditions. In the event of a virus outbreak - such as COVID or influenza - many school classrooms still lack the means to guarantee secure and healthy environments. The present review examines school contexts that implement air ventilation strategies to reduce the risk of contagion between students. The analysed articles present past experiences that use either natural or mechanical systems assessed through mathematical models, numerical models, or full-scale experiments. For naturally ventilated classrooms, the studies highlight the importance of the architectural design of educational spaces and propose strategies for aeration control such as CO2-based control and risk-infection control. When it comes to implementing mechanical ventilation in classrooms, different systems with different airflow patterns are assessed based on their ability to remove airborne pathogens considering parameters like the age of air and the generation of airflow streamlines. Moreover, studies report that programmed mechanical ventilation systems can reduce risk-infection during pandemic events. In addition to providing a systematic picture of scientific studies in the field, the findings of this review can be a valuable reference for school administrators and policymakers to implement the best strategies in their classroom settings towards reducing infection risks.
ABSTRACT
Noisiness in the working environment was largely proved to have effects on the working activity and performance. To limit the spreading of the COVID-19 pandemic in the first wave between March and May 2020, Italian workers had massively started performing remote working. Insights on the subjective perception of noise annoyance under the remote working settings were thus necessary. Workers from a university and from several large and small Italian companies, resulting in 1,934 participants overall, answered to a questionnaire on the perception of noise annoyance in the remote working environment. A total of 57% of the responding workers stated to be sensitive to noise. The questionnaire was delivered online;data were recorded anonymously and then aggregated for statistical analyses. Results show that 55% of the workers perform their activity in an isolated room of the home environment, 43% in a shared room (e.g., kitchen, living room), and 2% in an outdoor space, with the majority of workers (57%) performing activity without other people in the environment. Among the noise sources investigated, 25% of workers recognize the noise generated by people (e.g., talking, moving, calling, listening to music) as the main source of disturbance. The negative consequences of noise annoyance during the remote working hours are mainly related to a loss of concentration and to a difficulty in relaxing. Furthermore, workers reported to get easily irritated by noise generated from the neighborhoods or from the housemates as it tends to distract from finishing a task. © Copyright © 2021 Puglisi, Di Blasio, Shtrepi and Astolfi.