Worldwide poliomyelitis outbreaks: should mass gathering organizers be concerned?

The polio is the longest PHEIC and the continued occurrence of outbreaks of cVDPV would put further risks globally. The binary nature of PHEIC declarations would not support the continued polio PHEIC due to the requirement of tiered or graded strategies to combat such diseases.

COVID-19 infection risk assessment and management at the Tokyo 2020 Olympic and Paralympic Games: A scoping review.

The Tokyo 2020 Olympic and Paralympic Games was one of the largest international mass-gathering events held after the beginning of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic. In this scoping review, we extracted papers discussing COVID-19 risk assessment or management at the Tokyo 2020 Games to determine the nature of studies that were conducted. Among the 75 papers obtained from two search engines (PubMed and ScienceDirect) and four papers collected from hand-searches, 30 papers were extracted. Only eight papers performed both COVID-19 prior risk assessment and quantitative evaluation of effectiveness measures, highlighting the importance of rapid, solution-focused risk assessment. Furthermore, this review revealed that the findings regarding the spread of COVID-19 infection to citizens in the host country were inconsistent depending on the assessment methods and that assessments of the spread of infection outside the host country were lacking.

Healthcare policies, precautionary measures and outcomes of mass gathering events in the era of COVID-19 pandemic: Expedited review.

With the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic in early 2020, several countries suspended or restricted mass gathering (MG) events to mitigate the risk of superspreading events. Prohibiting MGs aimed to lessen the likelihood of highly infectious persons coming into close contact with many others. Now that the world has opened its doors wide and removed most of precautionary measures, many questions arise. In this review, we aimed to summarize the current evidence regarding the policies and regulations that were implemented for the safe return of MG events. Besides, we highlighted the impact of the return of MG events during 2021 on the trajectory of COVID-19 spread. Canceling MG events can carry religious, societal, economic, and public negative consequences necessitating the safe return of these events. The experience with the COVID-19 pandemic was the foundation for the recommendations for the safe conduction of MG events during the pandemic by international public health bodies. When policymakers adequately applied precautionary measures and strategic approaches, we witnessed the safe holding of huge MG events without aggravating the COVID-19 situation or increasing the number of new cases beyond the capacity and readiness of the national healthcare system.

COVID-19 Among Omani Pilgrim Returnees From the Ashura Mass Gathering.

Background The annual Ashura pilgrimage is a mass Islamic gathering during which millions of worshippers converge in the city of Karbala in Iraq. We report on the incidence of the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) in Omani pilgrims returning from Karbala in the month of Muharram (August) 2021 during the COVID-19 pandemic. Methodology This is a retrospective study using an electronic, self-completed, and Arab-language survey, composed of 17 questions, that was distributed to all pilgrims returning from Karbala. Participation was voluntary, and consent with confidentiality was obtained. Data on the demographics including sex, COVID-19 vaccination record, type of vaccine, duration of stay, compliance with wearing a face mask, using hand sanitization, and polymerase chain reaction (PCR) results for severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) virus before the departure from Oman, upon the return to Oman, and on the eighth post-quarantine day were collected. The responses were collected from the period between August 28, 2021, and September 25, 2022. Statistical association and analysis were performed using the Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) software (IBM SPSS Statistics, Armonk, NY). Results Out of 250 pilgrims, 139 responded to the survey. Fifty-two participants (37.4%) were males, and 87 (63.6%) were females. None of the pilgrims had positive SARS-CoV-2 PCR results before their departure from Oman. Only four pilgrims (2.9%) were detected positive on PCR by the end of a compulsory quarantine on the eighth day after arrival to Oman. No hospital admissions were recorded. The vast majority of the pilgrims were vaccinated with two doses of COVID-19 vaccination, while some few pilgrims were not vaccinated at all. Most of the pilgrims were also compliant with mask wearing, and just over half the pilgrims were compliant with hand sanitization. No significant statistical association was found between contracting SARS-CoV-2 virus infection and taking SARS-CoV-2 vaccination, the number of vaccination doses, having had COVID-19 before, wearing a mask, or compliance with hand sanitization. Conclusion The incidence of COVID-19 cases among pilgrims returning from Iraq during the COVID-19 pandemic was low. No significant difference was noted between pilgrims vaccinated and compliant with the protective measures and those who were not vaccinated or compliant. Herd immunity could be a possible explanation for the low incidence of COVID-19 infection. Larger studies are needed to investigate the incidence of COVID-19 in Ashura pilgrims.

Mass gatherings contributed to early COVID-19 mortality: Evidence from US sports

Social distancing is important to slow the community spread of infectious disease, but it creates enormous economic and social cost. Thus, it is important to quantify the benefits of different measures. We study the ban of mass gatherings, an intervention with comparably low cost. We exploit exogenous variation in the number of National Basketball Association and National Hockey League games, which arises due to the leagues' predetermined schedules, and the sudden suspension of the 2019–2020 seasons. We find that, among clusters of counties that are adjacent to sports venues, each additional mass gathering increased the cumulative number of COVID-19 deaths by 10.3%. © 2023 The Authors. Contemporary Economic Policy published by Wiley Periodicals LLC on behalf of Western Economic Association International.

A scoping review of the risk factors and strategies followed for the prevention of COVID-19 and other infectious diseases during sports mass gatherings: Recommendations for future FIFA World Cups.

Objective: Sports mass gatherings of people pose particular concerns and place an additional burden on the host countries and the countries of origin of the travelers. It is imperative to identify how countries dealt with various communicable diseases in the context of previous world cups and identify possible advice for protection from outbreaks. Methods: A scoping review was employed in this study and a PRISMA extension for scoping reviews was employed to guide the reporting of this study. A systematic search was performed using PubMed, Embase, Web of Science, SCOPUS, SportDiscus, and Google scholar. The search strategy included two main strings viz "communicable disease" AND "sport" AND "setting" as keywords for each string. A total of 34 studies were included in this review. Results: Information on risk factors for infectious diseases during FIFA, and recommendations for disease prevention in various stages of the event: pre-event, during, and post-event were charted. These strategies can be achieved with the empowerment of the public by enhancing their social responsibility and the coordination between the healthcare system, the ministry of public health, and other stakeholders. Conclusion: The findings will support planning for protection strategies to prevent any outbreak while having the FIFA World Cup or any other sports gatherings. A model was constructed to present the findings and recommendations from this review.

COVID-19: how can travel medicine benefit from tourism's focus on people during a pandemic?

In 2020, COVID-19 affected every aspect of life around the globe. The spread of SARS-CoV-2 through travel led to lockdowns, travel bans and border closures, crippling the tourism industry. Without tourists, there would be no tourism industry-and no travel medicine. Therefore, scholars started to research the human aspect of tourism immediately to develop strategies for economic recovery. The resulting insights are useful for travel medicine not only to see how tourism dealt with a medical crisis but also to understand travellers better who may be seeking health advice during and after a pandemic.This article presents tourism research of 2020 covering risk perception and travel intentions including mass-gatherings, the use of technology to protect from infection, impacts on tourism workers, residents' reactions to potentially infected travellers, discrimination, and racism. A potential fork in the road to tourism's future may have implications for travel health practitioners. Research recommendations conclude the paper. Understanding the industry response during the early days of panic and uncertainty may help prepare not only appropriate guidelines for travellers but also clearer instructions for tourism, transportation, and hospitality in anticipation of the next pandemic.

Development of a COVID-19 risk assessment model for participants at outdoor music festivals: evaluation of the validity and control measure effectiveness based on two actual events in Japan and Spain.

We developed an environmental exposure model to estimate the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) risk among participants at outdoor music festivals and validated the model using two real events-one in Japan (Event 1) and one in Spain (Event 2). Furthermore, we considered a hypothetical situation in which Event 1 was held but enhanced measures were implemented to evaluate the extent to which the risk could be reduced by additional infection control measures, such as negative antigen tests on the day of the event, wearing of masks, disinfection of environmental surfaces, and vaccination. Among 7,392 participants, the total number of already- and newly-infected individuals who participated in Event 1 according to the new model was 47.0 (95% uncertainty interval: 12.5-185.5), which is in good agreement with the reported value (45). The risk of infection at Event 2 (1.98 × 10-2; 95% uncertainty interval: 0.55 × 10-2-6.39 × 10-2), calculated by the model in this study, was also similar to the estimated value in the previous epidemiological study (1.25 × 10-2). These results for the two events in different countries highlighted the validity of the model. Among the additional control measures in the hypothetical Event 1, vaccination, mask-wearing, and disinfection of surfaces were determined to be effective. Based on the combination of all measures, a 94% risk reduction could be achieved. In addition to setting a benchmark for an acceptable number of newly-infected individuals at the time of an event, the application of this model will enable us to determine whether it is necessary to implement additional measures, limit the number of participants, or refrain from holding an event.

Thinning out spectators: Did football matches contribute to the second COVID-19 wave in Germany?

The COVID-19 pandemic has decelerated substantial parts of economic and human interaction. This paper estimates football matches' contribution to the spread of COVID-19 during Germany's second infection wave in summer and autumn 2020. Exploiting the exogenous fixture schedules of matches across German counties in an event study design, we estimate that one additional match in a county on average raises daily cases by between 0.34 to 0.71 cases per 100,000 inhabitants after three weeks. Hence, this implies an increase of the seven-day incidence per 100,000 inhabitants by around three to seven percent. We do not find qualitatively different results for a subsample of German top league matches with the strictest hygiene regulations or matches with higher occupancy levels. Notably, the found effect is mediated by the incidence level at the day of the match with very few infections for matches at a seven-day incidence below 25. Using mobile phone data, we identify strong increases in the local mobility as an underlying mechanism. We finally show that the ban of away fans successfully limited the spread of COVID-19 beyond county borders. Our results alert that even outdoor mass gatherings can remarkably cause infections.

Assessment of COVID-19 risk and prevention effectiveness among spectators of mass gathering events.

There is a need to evaluate and minimize the risk of novel coronavirus infections at mass gathering events, such as sports. In particular, to consider how to hold mass gathering events, it is important to clarify how the local infection prevalence, the number of spectators, the capacity proportion, and the implementation of preventions affect the infection risk. In this study, we used an environmental exposure model to analyze the relationship between infection risk and infection prevalence, the number of spectators, and the capacity proportion at mass gathering events in football and baseball games. In addition to assessing risk reduction through the implementation of various preventive measures, we assessed how face-mask-wearing proportion affects infection risk. Furthermore, the model was applied to estimate the number of infectors who entered the stadium and the number of newly infected individuals, and to compare them with actual reported cases. The model analysis revealed an 86-95% reduction in the infection risk due to the implementation of face-mask wearing and hand washing. Under conditions in which vaccine effectiveness was 20% and 80%, the risk reduction rates of infection among vaccinated spectators were 36% and 96%, respectively. Among the individual measures, face-mask wearing was particularly effective, and the infection risk increased as the face-mask-wearing proportion decreased. A linear relationship was observed between infection risk at mass gathering events and the infection prevalence. Furthermore, the number of newly infected individuals was also dependent on the number of spectators and the capacity proportion independent of the infection prevalence, confirming the importance of considering spectator capacity in infection risk management. These results highlight that it is beneficial for organisers to ensure prevention compliance and to mitigate or limit the number of spectators according to the prevalence of local infection. Both the estimated and reported numbers of newly infected individuals after the events were small, below 10 per 3-4 million spectators, despite a small gap between these numbers.

Global spread of a Japan-originated Delta lineage of SARS-CoV-2 after the Tokyo Olympics is most likely unrelated to the Olympics.

Participants of the 2021 Summer Olympics in Tokyo were required to adhere to strict health protocols, and there were no major local outbreaks within the separation bubbles. However, based on viral genomic data, we report that the Japan-specific Delta variants did spread out globally during or after the Olympics.

Cascading effects of mass gatherings on COVID-19 infections from a multi-hazard perspective: A case study of New York city

The devastating economic and societal impacts of COVID-19 can be substantially compounded by other secondary events that increase individuals' exposure through mass gatherings such as protests or sheltering due to a natural disaster. Based on the Crichton's Risk Triangle model, this paper proposes a Markov Chain Monte Carlo (MCMC) simulation framework to estimate the impact of mass gatherings on COVID-19 infections by adjusting levels of exposure and vulnerability. To this end, a case study of New York City is considered, at which the impact of mass gathering at public shelters due to a hypothetical hurricane will be studied. The simulation results will be discussed in the context of determining effective policies for reducing the impact of multi-hazard generalizability of our approach to other secondary events that can cause mass gatherings during a pandemic will also be discussed. © 2021 Information Systems for Crisis Response and Management, ISCRAM. All rights reserved.

Coming together after standing apart: What predicts felt safety in the post-coronavirus crowd?

RATIONALE: Over a year after the outbreak of SARS-CoV-2, and the ensuing COVID-19 pandemic with its lockdowns and social distancing requirements, being together with others again seems possible. Against this backdrop, important questions arise about how to safely manage gatherings of large numbers of unrelated people - like festivals, concerts and sporting matches - and how individuals contemplating involvement in such events feel about the risks presented. METHODS: To begin answering these questions, the current research surveyed would-be attendees at one of Europe's largest outdoor music festivals (n = 18353). Drawing on social psychological theories of crowd behavior and risk perception, we explored the identity processes that contributed to individual feelings of safety within the planned event. RESULTS: The results show that shared identity with other festival goers and the perception of collectivistic (versus individualistic) values as defining of that festival, contributed to more trust in relevant others, stronger expectations that others would behave with safety rather than risk, and through these increased comfort with, and acceptance of the risks presented by, the planned festival. CONCLUSION: These results highlight identity forces that might be leveraged for crowd management in the context of disease risk.