Playful Learning During the Reopening of Danish Schools After Covid 19 Closures

This article is based on qualitative and quantitative data collected from teachers and pupils in Danish schools in June 2020, as schools reopened following closures in the spring due to the COVID-19 pandemic. It investigates the transformations in school life that took place in this period in response to strict official guidelines to prevent the spread of infection, transformations both in school learning environments and in teaching activities. Using factor and cluster analyses and logistic regression, it explores the relation between teaching environment and pupils' emotional, social, and academic wellbeing, identifying correlations between key factors in the environment and the three dimensions of wellbeing. The study contributes both to understanding and dealing with the crisis in which education systems in the Nordic countries have found themselves in and adds relevant knowledge on themes of importance for education in the future.

A path to new normal of nuclear medicine facilities: Considerations for reopening

The stormy clouds of the coronavirus disease 2019 outbreak caused a rapidly spreading epidemic still hanging over the sphere. Any steps to transition toward a new normal should be guided by health authorities, together with economic and societal considerations. There are various items mainly falling into three classifications, including patient worry, clinical demand, and economic recession. Social distancing, lay-offs, and decreased number of patients with health insurance may lead to a prolonged period to retrieve normalcy. To return to a new normal, an individualized management model should be developed for each laboratory based on staff, instruments, services, crowding, physical space, hospital base unit, or outpatient clinic. Continuous training of different occupational staffs is among the key parameters in maintaining this readiness. The proposed response model should have internal and systemic integrity as well as coherence among the included items in two intra- and inter-unit management categories, namely thinking globally and acting locally.Copyright © 2021 mums.ac.ir All rights reserved.

An Examination of School District Reopening Plans for Mental Health Supports amid COVID-19 School Reopening

The purpose of this exploratory qualitative study was to understand the types of mental health supports described in school district reopening plans in one southeastern state, and to understand school social workers' involvement in developing these plans during the first full academic year of the COVID-19 pandemic. Publicly accessible school district reopening plans were collected from the 80 school districts in South Carolina, and 15 school social workers participated in virtual interviews. Out of the 80 school districts, 67 had reopening plans, and of those, only 43 percent mentioned mental health services and supports. Most school district reopening plans described Tier 1 universal prevention services and supports and a process for mental health assessment, identification, and referral. Fewer included Tier 2 early intervention and Tier 3 targeted and intensive services. Of the school social workers interviewed, only four were involved in helping to develop their school district reopening plans, and when involved, advocated for mental health services and supports for their students. The article concludes with a discussion of the study's implications for school social work practice.

Effect of Hybrid Immunity, School Reopening, and the Omicron Variant on Trajectory of Covid-19 Epidemic in India: A Modelling Study

Intro: The concurrent reopening of schools, increasing levels of hybrid immunity, and the emergence of the Omicron variant have affected the trajectory of the pandemic in India. We address related questions using the model Indian state of Andhra Pradesh (pop: 53 million). Method(s): A compartmental model which describes the disease progression of COVID-19 with two dose vaccination is employed to understand the effect of vaccination, immunity due to infection and VOC Omicron. This is an age- stratified as well as a contact-structured model. The introduction of the Omicron variant is modelled. We studied disease dynamics in a background of seropositivity gained from an earlier wave of infection as well as an ongoing vaccination program, together called "hybrid immunity". We demonstrate the effect of school reopening as well as of the Omicron (BA.2) variant on cases across different age-groups. Finding(s): Reopening schools increases cases in children as compared to adults, although most such cases are asymptomatic or mild. The height of this peak reduced as the background infection-induced seropositivity was increased from 20% to 40%. At reported values of seropositivity of 64%, no discernable peak was seen. We find that in the absence of vaccination, even at such high levels of seroprevalence, the emergence of the Omicron variant would have resulted in a large rise in cases across all age bands. Discussion(s): In India, the decreasing prevalence of immunologically naive individuals of all ages helped reduce the number of cases reported once schools were reopened. In addition, hybrid immunity, together with the lower intrinsic severity of disease associated with the Omicron variant, contributed to low reported COVID-19 hospitalizations and deaths. Conclusion(s): Mathematical modelling provides a powerful way of addressing central questions regarding the trajectory of the pandemic in India, clarifying the role of hybrid immunity.Copyright © 2023

Socioeconomic disparities in the reopening of schools during the pandemic in Chile.

The COVID-19 pandemic produced the most significant disruption in education in history. More than 190 countries suspended in-person instruction, affecting an estimated 1.6 billion students. The reopening of schools has been unequal. Schools in more affluent areas reopened sooner than poorer ones, exacerbating preexisting inequalities. There is limited research about the reopening processes in Latin America, where schools were closed for extended periods. Using a rich administrative dataset, we investigate the gaps in the resumption of in-person instruction in Chilean schools across socioeconomic groups in the fall of 2021. Schools with lower socioeconomic status were significantly less likely to offer in-person instruction. Disparities in reopening decisions were associated with administrative factors rather than economic or local epidemiological conditions.

COVID-19 endgame: From pandemic to endemic? Vaccination, reopening and evolution in low- and high-vaccinated populations.

COVID-19 remains a major public health concern, with large resurgences even where there has been widespread uptake of vaccines. Waning immunity and the emergence of new variants will shape the long-term burden and dynamics of COVID-19. We explore the transition to the endemic state, and the endemic incidence in British Columbia (BC), Canada and South Africa (SA), to compare low and high vaccination coverage settings with differing public health policies, using a combination of modelling approaches. We compare reopening (relaxation of public health measures) gradually and rapidly as well as at different vaccination levels. We examine how the eventual endemic state depends on the duration of immunity, the rate of importations, the efficacy of vaccines and the transmissibility. These depend on the evolution of the virus, which continues to undergo selection. Slower reopening leads to a lower peak level of incidence and fewer overall infections in the wave following reopening: as much as a 60% lower peak and a 10% lower total in some illustrative simulations; under realistic parameters, reopening when 70% of the population is vaccinated leads to a large resurgence in cases. The long-term endemic behaviour may stabilize as late as January 2023, with further waves of high incidence occurring depending on the transmissibility of the prevalent variant, duration of immunity, and antigenic drift. We find that long term endemic levels are not necessarily lower than current pandemic levels: in a population of 100,000 with representative parameter settings (Reproduction number 5, 1-year duration of immunity, vaccine efficacy at 80% and importations at 3 cases per 100K per day) there are over 100 daily incident cases in the model. Predicted prevalence at endemicity has increased more than twofold after the emergence and spread of Omicron. The consequent burden on health care systems depends on the severity of infection in immunized or previously infected individuals.

Arab Teachers' Well-Being upon School Reopening during COVID-19: Applying the Job Demands–Resources Model

Once the major threat of the COVID-19 pandemic diminished, schools reopened, and teachers once again had to cope with unprecedented challenges. The impact of these challenges on the emotional well-being of Arab teachers, who have a unique set of challenges within the Israeli school educational system, has received little attention in the recent literature. In this cross-sectional study, we examined 300 Arab teachers' well-being in Israel in May 2021, three months after schools were reopened. All study hypotheses were confirmed. Findings indicate the need to promote a sense of well-being among Arab teachers in stressful conditions and to design solutions specifically tailored to support them in accordance with their cultural and social characteristics. Israel's Ministry of Education should encourage school administrators to seek ways to provide a supportive environment for Arab teachers in school environments in order to improve their performance and retention, and maintain their well-being.

The Politics of School Reopening During COVID-19: A Multiple Case Study of Five Urban Districts in the 2020–21 School Year

Purpose: Nearly all schools in the United States closed in spring 2020, at the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic. We analyze traditional public and charter school reopenings for the 2020–21 school year in five urban districts. We provide a rich and theoretically grounded description of how and why educational leaders made reopening decisions in each of our case districts. Research Methods: We used data from a multiple-case study from March 2020 to July 2021. The research team conducted 56 interviews with school, district, and system-level leaders;triangulated with publicly available data;and also drew on interview data from a subsample of parents and guardians in each of our sites. We analyzed these data through qualitative coding and memo writing and conducted detailed single- and cross-case analyses. Findings: School system leaders in our case sites generally consulted public health authorities, accounted for state-level health and educational guidance, and engaged with and were responsive to the interests of different stakeholders. Districts' adherence to and strategic uses of public health guidance, as well as a combination of union-district relations and labor market dynamics, influenced reopening. Parents, city, and state lawmakers, and local institutional conditions also played a role, helping to explain differences across cases. Implications: In contrast to the "politics or science” framing that has dominated research and public discourse on school reopening, we show that local pandemic conditions and local political dynamics both mattered and in fact were interrelated. Our findings have some implications for how educational leaders might navigate future crises. [ FROM AUTHOR] Copyright of Educational Administration Quarterly is the property of Sage Publications Inc. and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full . (Copyright applies to all s.)

Residents' risk perceptions, willingness to accept international tourists, and self-protective behaviour during destination re-opening amidst the COVID-19 pandemic

This study investigates factors influencing residents' risk perceptions of COVID-19 pandemic, their willingness to accept international tourists, and self-protective behaviour during destination re-opening during the pandemic. Drawing upon the concept of Protection Motivation Theory, and using a face-to-face quota sampling survey of 521 valid responses from residents in a world class tourist destination in Phuket, the structural equation modelling results prove the PMT model is powerful enough to explain risk perceptions of local residents in accepting international tourists when reopening a destination during the pandemic. Furthermore, this study confirms the negative influence of risk perception on intention to accept international tourists and the positive influence of risk perception on actual self-protective behaviour of residents. In addition, the role of risk perception as the mediator between PMT factors, willingness to accept international tourists, and self-protective behaviours is confirmed in this study. The article concludes by presenting academic and practical discussion and implications based on the findings.

Evaluation of Twitter Sentiment towards COVID-19

The novel (COVID-19) pandemic is the most talked subject in web-based media stages in 2020. Individuals are utilizing web-based media, for example, Twitter to offer their viewpoint and offer data on various issues identified with the COVID-19 in this stay-At-home request. Here we have explored the conclusion and feeling of people groups in the U.S.A regarding the matter of resuming. We pick the online media stage Twitter for our examination and study the Tweets to find the nostalgic point of view, enthusiastic viewpoint, and setting off words towards the returning. During this COVID-19 pandemic, analysts have made some examination on different online media dataset with respect to lockdown and stay at home. Be that as it may, in our examination, we are especially in trigged to dissect public estimation on returning. Our significant finding is that when all states resorted to lockdown in March, individuals showed predominant feeling of dread, yet as resuming begins individuals have less dread. While this might be valid, because of this resuming stage day by day sure case surprising contrasted with the lockdown circumstance. Generally speaking, individuals have a more positive assumption towards the circumstance of resuming. © 2022 IEEE.

The Politics of Re-Opening Schools: Explaining Public Preferences Reopening Schools and Public Compliance with Reopening Orders During the COVID-19 Pandemic

Due to the COVID-19 Pandemic, the decision to reopen schools for in-person instruction has become a pressing policy issue. This study examines what overall factors drive public support for schools re-opening in person and whether members of the public are willing to comply with school re-opening decisions based on their own preferences and/or the level of government from which the order comes. Through two rounds of national surveys with an embedded experiment, I find consistent evidence that 1) trust in information from elites - not contact with COVID - best explain preferences for reopening, 2) political ideology and racial and class identification help explain preferences as well, and 3) the President of the United States is best positioned to generate compliance with a school reopening mandate. This study suggests that politics - not public health - drives public support for schools reopening and compliance with government orders to reopen. AD -, Providence, RI, USA ;, Providence, RI, USA

Open for Economic Activities during the COVID-19 Pandemic: Factors Related to State Reopening Policies in a Federal Policy Vacuum

What factors influence state governors to issue an executive order to reopen economic activities more or less quickly when removing the COVID-19 pandemic restrictions? Without comprehensive federal guidelines, state governors were faced with an administrative dilemma in devising mitigation policies that promoted safe public health measures while encouraging more business activity. Following the federal directive to reopen in April 2020, governors in all 50 states signed executive orders, but some waited longer than others. We argue that variation in the timing of the enactment of initial executive orders is influenced by political factors, financial resources factors, interstate factors, and problem severity of the public health incidence. Using an event history analysis, our Cox proportional hazard regression model suggests that states with unified Republican governments, more state funding obtained from the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security (CARES) Act, and participation in regional collaboration resumed activities earlier compared to states with more neighbors that issued reopening executive orders and states with more per capita income. Results indicate that, in crisis situations, unified political partisanship, the receipt of federal funding, and coordination with other states facilitate rapid policy adoption.

Fear Not, for I Am with You Again (Socially Distanced): A Qualitative Thematic Analysis of Megachurch Post-covid Lockdown Re-opening Videos on Facebook

Churches in the United States closed their doors to in-person gatherings during the covid-19 lockdown in March of 2020. As conditions improved, churches began re-opening to indoor worship services, instituting safety measures to comply with cdc guidelines. Churches used social media to promote their re-opening to their congregations. With the goal of evaluating the video messages of churches promoting their re-opening, the study analyzes the content of Facebook videos from non-denominational megachurches between June and October 2020. This qualitative thematic analysis explores how the videos address the threat of covid-19, the risk of attending in-person services, and the efficacy of health and safety measures. The inductive analysis was sensitized by the extended parallel processing model, ritual communication theory, and the concept of security theater. The themes identified have potential implications for future religious and health communication research, especially concerning contentious safety protocols, managing fear and anxiety, liability concerns, livestreaming technology, and more digitally transient congregations. © 2023 Authors. All rights reserved.

Investigating the relationship of schools reopening to increases in COVID-19 infections using event study methodology: The case of the Delta variant.

BACKGROUND: Hypothesis: School reopening had a significant impact on COVID-19 infection rates across USA states. METHODS: Eight states with fully reopened public schools were studied. States who did not previously have stay-at-home orders for a minimum of 30 days were excluded from the study so that increases in infection rates would be solely due to the economies of reopening. This study used event study methodology with a 30-day estimation window. This allowed us to determine if increases in COVID-19 infection rates were significant following schools reopening. RESULTS: Eight states were analyzed, and seven of the states had positive and significant COVID-19 infection increases. The other state's increase was negative and significant. CONCLUSIONS: This study found that reopening of schools had an initial 5-day increase in COVID-19 infections in seven of eight states whose data were examined. With schools being re-opened nationwide in Fall 2021, this indicates that with the Delta variant there is an expected significant increase in infections.

School Nurses' Reports on Reopening Roles, Practices, and Concerns During the COVID-19 Pandemic at the Start of the 2020-2021 School Year.

The COVID-19 pandemic has caused major disruptions to U.S. school systems since March 2020. To facilitate our understanding of how school nurses participated in school reopening and what support school nurses needed beginning the 2020-2021 school year during the COVID-19 pandemic, we conducted a national survey in late summer 2020. A sample of 747 school nurses from 43 states responded to an online survey about roles, practices, and concerns. Over one-third (36.9%) reported not being included in school reopening planning. Mitigation practices reported by respondents primarily included measuring temperatures of students before school (21.3%), mask wearing by students (79.9%), and 6 feet social distancing (76.7%). The respondents' greatest concerns were the educational impact on students with individualized education plans, parents sending children to school with COVID-19 symptoms, and the economic impact on families. Our results point to opportunities for greater school nurse involvement, improvements in practices, and measures to address school nurses' concerns.

Psychological Impact and Educational Challenges of COVID-19 Pandemic among Teachers in Goa

Background: This study focused on exploring stress among teachers due to COVID-19, with the changing face of education such as online teaching, and to check awareness among teachers regarding reopening guidelines. Method(s): It was a cross-sectional observational study among 330 teachers in various schools and colleges in Goa during November 2020. Snowball sampling was done. Perceived stress scale-4 was used to assess stress. We collected the data using Google forms and analyzed using the R programming language. Results were reported based on descriptive statistics, t-test, and ANOVA. Result(s): The study shows that teachers were under moderate stress. Sex and marital status did not show any significant contributions to the stress level. Factors such as work status (working from home or office), designation (teacher at college, higher secondary, or secondary), and COVID-19 infection among relatives showed significant association with stress level. Data revealed that 10.5% of teachers were at risk of job loss. 70.8% of the teachers were facing moderate to high difficulty in keeping their students on board during online classes. 85.2% faced internet connectivity issues. Half of them preferred online and offline combined work. More than 90% of teachers were well aware of the guidelines to be followed while reopening the school/college. Conclusion(s): The study revealed that the teachers were under moderate stress due to COVID-19 during the study period. The stress levels had significant associations between work status, designation, and COVID-19 infection among relatives. Online education was challenging and awareness about school reopening guidelines was adequate.

Politics, preparedness, or resources Examining state responsiveness to the COVID-19 pandemic.

U.S. states are often the primary decision makers during a public health crisis. The COVID-19 pandemic led to several different reopening processes across states based on their unique characteristics. We analyze whether states' reopening policy decisions were driven by their public health preparedness, resources, COVID-19 impact, or state politics and political culture. To do so, we summarized state characteristics and compared them across three categories of reopening scores in a bivariate analysis using the chi-square or Fisher exact test for the categorical variables and a one-way analysis of variance (ANOVA) for the continuous variables. A cumulative logit model was used to assess the primary research question. A significant factor in a state's reopening decision was the party of the governor, regardless of the party in control of the legislature, state political culture, public health preparedness, cumulative number of deaths per 100,000, and Opportunity Index score.

The Effect of Risk and Protective Factors on Primary School Students' COVID-19 Anxiety: Back to School After the Pandemic.

This study aimed to analyze the risk and protective factors affecting the COVID-19 anxiety of primary school students after the reopening. It was investigated how primary school students' parents' vaccination, and COVID-19 cases seen at school, knowledge and awareness directly or indirectly explained their individual and social COVID-19 anxiety. The data were obtained from 227 primary school students living in different regions of Turkey. Pandemic Awareness Scale, Pandemic Anxiety Scale, Pandemic Information Test and Information Form were used to obtain the data. The data were analyzed by path analysis. According to the results, the case seen at school, knowledge and awareness of COVID-19 directly and significantly predicted primary school students' individual and social COVID-19 anxiety. Vaccination of parents, on the other hand, directly significantly predicted social COVID-19 anxiety of primary school students, but did not significantly predict individual COVID-19 anxiety. In addition, in this effect, awareness of COVID-19 mediates the knowledge of COVID-19, and cases seen at school mediate the vaccination of parents. The obtained model showed a good fit. According to the results, primary school students' knowledge and awareness about COVID-19 and parents' vaccination reduced their anxieties, and COVID-19 cases seen at school increased their anxiety.

Reviving the economy while saving lives: a deep reinforcement learning approach for smart POI reopening

With the gradual improvements in COVID-19 metrics and the accelerated immunization progress, countries around the world have began to focus on reviving the economy while continuously strengthening epidemic control. POInt-of-Interest (POI) reopening, as a necessity for restoring human mobilities, has become a crucial step to recouple economic recovery and public health management. In contrast to the lock-down policy, POI reopening demands a dynamic trade-off between epidemic interventions and economic costs. In the urban scenario, there exist three key challenges in developing effective POI reopening strategies as follows. (1) During the POI reopening process, there are multiple urban factors affecting the epidemic transmission, which are difficult to simultaneously incorporate and balance in a single reopening strategy;(2) the effects of POI reopening on both economic recovery and epidemic control are long-term, which are hard to capture by static models;and (3) the dual objectives of minimizing infections and maintaining POIs' visits are conflicting, making it difficult to achieve a flexible and scalable trade-off. To tackle the above challenges, we propose Reopener, a deep reinforcement learning (RL) framework for smart POI reopening. First, we utilize a bipartite graph neural network to automatically encode all urban factors that would affect the epidemic prevention and POI visit restriction. Second, we employ a RL-based deep policy network to enable flexible updates in restrictions on POIs along with the trend of epidemic. Third, we design a novel reward function to guide the RL agent to learn smartly, thus comprehensively trading off infections and visit sustainability of POIs. Extensive experimental results demonstrate that Reopener outperforms all baseline methods with remarkable improvements, by reducing the overall economic cost by at least 6.42%. Reopener can effectively suppress infections and support a phase-based POI reopening process, which provides valuable insights for strategy design in post-COVID-19 economic recovery. © 2022 Owner/Author.

School reopening: Back to classroom. A systematic review of strategies and their implementation during COVID-19 pandemic.

School closure has affected millions of students worldwide. After more than a year of school closure, steps have been taken to re-start in-person schooling. These strategies have worked well for many setups; however, there are some gaps that have led to repeated sessions of closure and reopening of schools. We have studied these plans of reopening schools and looked into changes that can improve their execution. In this study, we have studied the impact of school reopening in the transmission of SARS CoV-2 in various countries, both developed and developing nations. We have reviewed the measures taken in different countries to reopen schools. We have studied how effective these measures were so as to chart out plans from them to execute our strategies in the country. Both urban and rural setups have been taken in to account. We have searched the electronic databases, PubMed and MEDLINE, and bibliographies of relevant studies were included. We have used the keywords "COVID-19," "school," "reopening," "prevention," "strategies," and "transmission." We have manually searched for studies addressing school reopening during the COVID-19 pandemic. PRISMA approach has been adopted to study the articles systematically. After reviewing different studies on school reopening, a low transmission rate among students was noted in 12 out of 13 studies. Measures such as hand hygiene, masks, and contact tracing are fundamental in preventing the spread of infection in schools.