Pandemi Sürecinde Devletin Geri Dönüşü: Fransa ve Türkiye Örnekleri

Bu çalışmada pandemi sürecinde devletin rolü ve işlevleri Fransa ve Türkiye örnekleri üzerinden karşılaştırmalı olarak ele alınmaktadır. Kovid-19 pandemisinin kamu sağlığı güvenliği açısından yarattığı aciliyet, şok ve kriz ortamı, kamusal otoritelerin önlem alma pratiklerini dönüştürürken her ülkenin, sınırlarını ve güvenlik politikalarını yeniden gözden geçirmesine yol açmıştır. 1980'lerden itibaren refah politikalarından rekabetçi politikalara geçiş, ulusal sınırların esnekleşip uluslararası sermayeye açılması;küreselleşme ve kozmopolitleşme yönünde güçlü bir irade olduğu sanısını yaratmıştır. Ancak pandeminin yarattığı koşullara verilen tepki bunun aksi yönde sonuç vermiştir: Korumacı ekonomi politikalarının, gelir dağıtıcı yaklaşımının yanı sıra ulusal sınırların ve milliyetçi reflekslerin yükselişine şahit olunmuştur. Bu çalışmada bu gelişmelerin pandemi dönemi ile sınırlı ve geçici bir refleks olmayıp post-pandemik toplumsal koşullarda da süreceği iddia edilmekte ve bu süreci anlamak için devletin dönüşümü üzerinden bir okuma önerilmektedir. Çalışmada, hukuki bilgi ve belgelerin yanı sıra aktörlerin açıklamaları ve basına yansıyan haberler incelenmekte ve bahsi geçen dönüşümün sebepleri, mahiyeti ve olası sonuçları betimleyici ve yorumlayıcı yöntemle ele alınmaktadır.Alternate :In this study, the role and functions of the state in the pandemic process are discussed comparatively through the examples of France and Turkey. The urgency, shock, and crisis environment created by the Covid-19 pandemic in terms of public health security have led each country to reconsider its borders and security policies while transforming the precautionary practices of public authorities. Since the 1980s, it has been assumed that there was a strong will for the transition from welfare policies to competitive policies and the flexibility of national borders for strengthening globalization and cosmopolitanism. However, the reaction to the conditions created by the pandemic resulted in the opposite direction: The rise of national borders and nationalist reflexes, as well as the protectionist economic policies and income distribution approach, were witnessed. In this study, it is claimed that these developments will not be a temporary reflex limited to the pandemic period but will continue in post-pandemic social conditions. In addition, it will be suggested that an analysis of the transformation of the state in a historical process is crucial to understand this process. In addition to the legal information and documents, the explanations of the actors and the news will be examined, and the reasons, nature, and possible consequences of the transformation will be discussed with a descriptive and interpretive method.

DIVERGENT MODELS OF COVID-19 PANDEMIC MANAGEMENT AND THEIR INTERNATIONAL RECEPTION: CASES OF CHINA AND SOUTH KOREA

The Covid-19 pandemic has presented an extraordinary and unprecedented situation. In their efforts to end the pandemic, countries worldwide followed different approaches to combat the virus. Among these, China emerged as the prime example of an authoritarian model of virus management, whereas South Korea managed to slow down the pandemic with a liberal democratic approach. Although both were successful in pandemic management, China and South Korea have different and contrasting images in the international area. This study analyzes how China's and South Korea's pandemic management models and their international reception differ from each other. It claims that while both models were largely applauded domestically, in the international sphere, China, after early acclaim, ended up with a more negative and controversial image, whereas South Korea created a relatively more positively regarded model. Still, compared to the South Korean model, many more countries emulated and implemented the Chinese model worldwide. (English) [ FROM AUTHOR] Covid-19 pandemisi olağanüstü ve benzeri görülmemiş bir duruma neden olmuştur. Dünyanın dört bir yanındaki ülkeler, pandemiyi sona erdirmek için virüsle mücadelede farklı yaklaşımları takip etmiştir. Bunlar arasında Çin, otoriter virüs yönetimi modelinin başlıca örneği olurken, Güney Kore liberal demokratik bir yaklaşımla salgını yavaşlatmayı başarmıştır. Her iki ülke de salgın yönetimi konusunda başarılı olsalar da Çin ve Güney Kore, uluslararası alanda birbirinden farklı ve hatta birbirlerinin zıttı imajlara sahiptir. Bu çalışma, Çin ve Güney Kore'nin salgın yönetim modellerinin ve bu modellerin uluslararası alanda kabul edilme düzeylerinin birbirinden nasıl farklılaştığını incelemektedir. Çalışma, her iki modelin de ülke içinde büyük ölçüde desteklenirken, uluslararası alanda Çin'in erken dönemde beğeni topladıktan sonra daha olumsuz ve tartışmalı bir imaja sahip olduğunu, Güney Kore'nin ise nispeten daha olumlu değerlendirilen bir model geliştirdiğini savunmaktadır. Bununla birlikte Çin modeli, Güney Kore modeliyle karşılaştırıldığında dünya genelinde daha fazla sayıda ülke tarafından taklit edilerek uygulamaya konmuştur. (Turkish) [ FROM AUTHOR] Copyright of Pamukkale University Journal of Social Sciences Institute / Pamukkale Üniversitesi Sosyal Bilimler Enstitüsü Dergisi is the property of Pamukkale University, Social Sciences Institute 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.)

COVID-19 and the Case Against Neoliberalism: The United Kingdom's Political Pandemic

This book seeks to better understand the meaning and implications of the UKs calamitous encounter with the COVID-19 global pandemic for the future of British neoliberalism. Construing COVID-19 as a political pandemic and mobilising a novel applied political philosophy approach, the authors cultivate fresh intellectual resources, both analytical and normative, to better understand why the UK failed the COVID-19 test and how it might ‘fail forward' so as to strengthen its resilience. COVID-19 they argue, has intercepted the UK government's decades-long experimentation with neoliberalism at what appears to be a threshold moment in this model's life course. Neoliberalism has served as a key progenitor of the country's vulnerability: the pandemic has cruelly unveiled the failings of neoliberal logics and legacies which have placed the country at elevated risk and hampered its response. The pandemic in turn has attenuated underlying systemic maladies inherent in British neoliberalism and served as a great disruptor and potential accelerant of history;a consequential episode in the tumultuous life of this politico-economic model. To meaningfully ‘build back better', a true renaissance of social democracy is needed. Drawing upon the neorepublican tradition of political philosophy, the authors confront neoliberalism's hegemonic but parochial concept of human freedom as non-interference and place the neorepublican idea of freedom as non-domination in the service of building a new UK social contract. This book will be of interest to political philosophers, political geographers, medical sociologists, public-health scholars, and epidemiologists, to stakeholders engaged in the public inquiry processes now gathering momentum globally and to architects of build back better programmes, especially in western advanced capitalist economies. © The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2022.

A qualitative study on the perception of infection prevention and control measures among healthcare workers without patient contact during the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic.

We conducted a qualitative interview-based study to examine the perception of infection prevention and control (IPC) measures implemented during the COVID-19 pandemic among healthcare workers (HCWs) without patient contact in a tertiary academic care center. We compared these findings to those derived from interviews of HCWs with patient contact from the same institution using the same study design. The following main four themes were identified: (1) As for HCWs with patient contact, transparent communication strongly contributes to employees' sense of security. (2) Information on personal protective equipment (PPE) usage needs to be stratified according to different educational backgrounds and professions. (3) Consistency of IPC measures was positively perceived yet a desire for constant reminders to counteract the fatigue effect played a more significant role for HCWs without patient contact. (4) As compared to HCWs with patient contact, HCWs without patient contact preferred uniform digital training resources rather than more face-to-face training. This study shows that the needs of HCWs with and without patient contact differ and need to be considered in pandemic management.

Assessment of COVID-19 Positive Rates Amongst COVID-19 Close Contacts Through the Health Risk Warning System.

From 6 Jan 22 to 17 Feb 22, a total of 729,367 close contacts classified into four distinct groups (i.e., household, social, school and nursing/ welfare home contacts) were managed by the Health Risk Warning system. High COVID-19-positive rates were demonstrated amongst household contacts, i.e., 10.9% (37,220/342,302) were detected via antigen rapid test kits and 56.5% (4,952/8,767) were detected via polymerase chain reaction testing. Household contacts represent the highest risk of being infected by virtue of the sustained close-proximity interactions in the household setting. Social, school and nursing/ welfare home contacts continue to remain at-risk groups for close monitoring. At a population level, household and symptomatic close contacts should be the groups of focus in the early phases of the pandemic, including future potential waves involving COVID-19 variants of concern.

Bounding pandemic spread by heat spread.

The beginning of a pandemic is a crucial stage for policymakers. Proper management at this stage can reduce overall health and economical damage. However, knowledge about the pandemic is insufficient. Thus, the use of complex and sophisticated models is challenging. In this study, we propose analytical and stochastic heat spread-based boundaries for the pandemic spread as indicated by the Susceptible-Infected-Recovered (SIR) model. We study the spread of a pandemic on an interaction (social) graph as a diffusion and compared it with the stochastic SIR model. The proposed boundaries are not requiring accurate biological knowledge such as the SIR model does.

COVID-19 uncertainty, pandemic management strategy, management control and public health performance

Purpose: Although the use of management control systems (MCS) in crisis management has received extensive attention, limited knowledge exists regarding the benefits of the broad scope, timeliness, integration and aggregation dimensions. This study aims at examining the performance implications of the context-structure combinations of pandemic management strategy (PMS), MCS use and pandemic-induced uncertainty of public health institutions (PHIs) in Ghana. Design/methodology/approach: Data were collected using online survey questionnaire where 246 public health managers qualified for the study. Data were analyzed using covariance-based structural equations modeling (version 23). Findings: PMS was found to have a significant and positive impact on three (broad scope, timeliness and aggregation) of the four dimensions. The integrated dimension was statistically insignificant. In addition, the three dimensions had a significant impact on top managers' satisfaction with MCS use, which in turn impact on cost containment and quality of care. Finally, COVID-19 uncertainty moderated the relationship between MCS use and operational performance. Practical implications: The three dimensions of broad scope, timeliness and aggregation are critical for PHIs when it comes to crisis management. Moreover, the presence of pandemics strengthens the relationship between top manager use of MCS and performance in health care. More sophisticated MCS information is required when managing pandemic-related crisis by PHIs. Originality/value: This study presents a theoretical framework that integrates PMS, MCS use and performance of public health care from a contingency perspective. It extends the benefits of contingency theory to include the three dimensions of MCS with respect to crisis management. © 2023, Emerald Publishing Limited.

Research Paper Relationship of Anxiety Management Types and Health-related Variables of People During Lockdown in a German Sample

Background: In the present study, four anxiety coping types and their relationship to bio-and health-psychologically relevant parameters were investigated in the first lockdown phase in Germany. The four anxiety management types are the non-defensive, represser, sensitizer and highly anxious. These types originate from a concept by Byrne (1961), Krohne (1974), whereby the handling of fearful information is examined. According to newer studies from Stueck (2021), these anxiety coping styles during lockdown are related to various other biopsychological and health psychological parameters. Materials and Methods: To investigate the problem and question of the frequency of the anxiety types, the relationship to bio-and health-psychological parameters and age-specific characteristics of these variables, an experimental group was studied (N=325, f=164 m=57 d=1). This study took place 10 days after the lockdown in Germany. Results: The problematic anxiety coping types (Sensitizer, Repressive & Highly Anxious) are represented by 54.2% frequency of occurrence. The Flexible-adaptive type (Non-Defensive) that is by having an acceptable adaptability to the anxiety-provoking situation are prominent with 45.8%. In terms of the correlations with the bio-and health-psychological variables, correlations were found between the problematic anxiety coping styles and the negative expressions in the variables. Conclusion: The study shows the importance of a differential consideration according to age in the expression of problematic anxiety coping styles in particular. The study also showwhat bio-and health-psychological consequences these manifestations of problematic anxiety coping styles can have. In the following article, indications are given as to which interventionastrategies can be applied to deal with these problems psychologically. © 2022, Negah Institute for Scientific Communication. All rights reserved.

Evaluation of COVID-19 pandemic management in Türkiye.

Three years since the first cases were identified and 2 years since an effective vaccine was developed, COVID-19 continues to claim lives and impact people's health and wellbeing, both socially and economically. While the world has been waiting for its leaders to come together to form a collective response to end the pandemic, we still have not seen a multisectoral response, nor any whole-of-society approach. Like many other countries around the globe, Türkiye was caught unprepared by the pandemic. This was exacerbated by the unsuccessful management of the pandemic by the authorities. The reasoning and/or scientific explanations for enforcing or lifting public health measures have never shared with the public. Throughout the pandemic, no epidemiological details have been released on cases and deaths, other than the numbers of these two measures. Civil society organizations, professional associations, and the public in general have been kept out from policy formulation and decision making. As a result, community engagement has never been properly put into practice. In this paper, we analyzed Türkiye's pandemic management response through the continuum of the response cycle to emergencies: prevention, preparedness, readiness, response, and recovery.

An optimal vaccination strategy for pandemic management and its impact on economic recovery

The economic impact of the COVID-19 pandemic has been devastating for countries across the world. We propose a novel method for estimating reproduction number (R0) using community mobility to obtain optimal vaccination coverage (OVC). Different scenarios for achieving the desired immunization rates are evaluated using nonlinear regression models. The impact of recovery rates on mobility is also assessed to determine how the economy would have fared in various scenarios. Lock-downs due to COVID-19, which restricted mobility, were the main cause of the decline in GDP. For the city of Mumbai in India, with an increase in recovery rate from 1% to 5%, it was observed that mobility and thus economic activity might have been restored to some ex-tent. The findings presented here may aid the governing bodies in developing more effective emergency response plans. © 2023,Current Science. All Rights Reserved.

Management of The COVID-19 Pandemic and Public Response in Lithuania: Knowledge, Attitudes, and Practices (KAP)

The article aims to provide an overview of the interrelationships between public knowledge, attitudes, and practical behaviours in the context of a global pandemic and the risk management measures used by the government. By reviewing some of the key trends in crisis management in Lithuania, it seeks to explore the response of society. The aim of the paper is to analyse the interrelationship among subjective public informativeness, attitudes, and behaviours according to different socio-demographic aspects. To meet the main objective of the paper, a representative public survey (N-804) on attitudes towards COVID-19 was conducted (at the end of 2020). The survey sought to explore individual self-protection measures, attitudes towards the dangerousness of the virus, the measures used by the government to combat the pandemic, and prevalent stereotypes and their implications on personal behaviour. The paper discusses the indicators, which are divided into separate blocks, on the basis of which the responses of the study participants are summed up and evaluated on a three-level (good, average, poor) rating scale, followed by correlation analyses on various socio-demographic parameters. The survey revealed that a higher proportion of Lithuanian society behaved responsibly, even being moderately informed and characterised by diverse attitudes. © 2022 Dainius Genys et al., published by Sciendo.

What Really Drives the Spread of COVID-19 Tweets: A Revisit from Perspective of Content

COVID-19 content spreads wildly on social media and produces significant effects in both causing social panic and assisting pandemic management. However, what really enhances the diffusion of pandemic-related content during COVID-19, particularly from the perspective of the content itself, remains unexplored. Using large-scale COVID-19 tweets posted on Twitter, this paper empirically examines the effects of the four key characteristics, namely emotions, topics, hashtags, and mentions, on information spread in the pandemic. The empirical results show that most negative emotions have positive effects on retweeting. Nevertheless, the positive effect of trust on retweeting is unexpectedly the strongest. And the positive effects of the political topics and mentioning politicians further indicate that people are sensitive to the politicization of information during the pandemic. The strongest anger intensity in the political topic also needs to be noticed. The results complement the extant understanding of information diffusion during COVID-19 and provide insights for the governments to understand the psychology and behavior of large population during disasters like global pandemics. © 2022 IEEE.

Are Stay-at-Home and Face Mask Orders Effective in Slowing Down COVID-19 Transmission? – A Statistical Study of U.S. Case Counts in 2020

Whether the stay-at-home order and face mask mandate are effective in slowing down the COVID-19 virus transmission is up for debate. To investigate this matter, we employ a unique angle. A two-wave logistic equation is proposed and then fitted to the cumulative case counts of all 50 states in the U.S. from the onset to early December of 2020 when vaccinating begins at large scale. The data period is confined to isolate the effects of executive orders from that of vaccination. The length of the first wave's accelerating phase is regressed on variables describing the stay-at-home order and face mask mandate, along with control variables. A state's lockdown duration is discovered to be negatively related to the time it takes for the virus to transit from accelerating to decelerating rates. This finding provides statistical support to the executive orders and can be useful in guiding risk management of future pandemics.

The management of Covid19 pandemic and its impact on migrant farmworkers in Italy: anthropological insights

Purpose: Two important measures concerning the management of the workforce were introduced in Italy during the COVID-19–related health emergency: the regularization of irregular migrants working in the domestic and agro-industrial sector, and the introduction of the health-pass requirement to access all workplaces. This article analyses the impacts of such measures on a specific category of workers: migrant farmworkers, notably racially subaltern, marginalized and exploited. Implicit ideological and normative assumptions underlying Italian policies to address the health emergency and related labor shortages raise important questions about the meaning of "life” and whose lives matter in emergency contexts, which this article aims to address. Design/methodology/approach: This paper is based on the case study of the informal settlements for seasonal migrant workers in the agro-industrial district of Capitanata (Apulia). Findings: Based on the aforementioned case study, this article shows that Italian measurs concerning the management of the workforce during the COVID-19–related health emergency resulted in various forms of blackmail to which migrant farmworkers were especially subjected, and increased their exploitability and "expulsability” from the labor market. In particular, it argues that the aforementioned measures resulted in significant shifts in the relationship between migrant farmworkers and the state, on the one hand, and between migrant farmworkers and employers, on the other. Originality/value: Rather than promoting migrant farmworkers' social, economic and health rights, this double shift turned into increased oppression, exploitability and dependency on the employer. © 2023, Emerald Publishing Limited.

COVID-19: Exacerbating Pakistan's economic problems – a critical analysis using the dependency paradigm

Pandemics have been a recurrent phenomenon throughout the course of history. However, the levels of fear and hysteria brought by the COVID-19 outbreak, forcing regimes across the globe to impose stringent lockdowns, had never been witnessed before. While these lockdowns proved beneficial in reducing both the infection and mortality rate, they created an impossible environment for governments across the globe to effectively and efficiently govern, which in turn gave birth to numerous economic challenges, especially in developing countries like Pakistan. In Pakistan, where the common person was already finding it very difficult to makes ends meet, the pandemic incurred tremendous economic hardships like unemployment, poverty and decline in per capita income. Consequently, Pakistan's economy struggled as it experienced a negative economic growth rate, inflation and a significant reduction in exports. As a by-product of the economic crunch, the flawed Pakistani governance system came under the spotlight, as it found itself struggling to tackle the day-by-day worsening situation. Strikingly, due to the infamous longstanding province–centre rift, Pakistan was neither able to promulgate an effective unified lockdown strategy nor to provide basic necessities to its citizens. This article analyses the governance and economic problems faced by Pakistan due to the COVID-19 outbreak from the prism of the dependency paradigm, which highlights the exploitative nature of developed–developing/underdeveloped states. Also, it provides policy prescriptions to strengthen Pakistan's economic system to deter future pandemics. © The Author(s) 2023.

Retour d'expérience sur la direction médicale de crise à l'Assistance publique–Hôpitaux de Paris pendant la crise Covid-19

Un retour d'expérience sur la direction médicale de crise (DMC) pendant la première phase de l'épidémie de Covid-19 a été effectué à l'Assistance publique–Hôpitaux de Paris (AP–HP), le plus important centre hospitalier universitaire européen. L'AP–HP s'est dotée d'un directeur médical de crise (DMC) AP–HP, de six DMC de groupes hospitaliers (GH) et d'un DMC pour chacun des 39 sites hospitaliers. Le pilotage s'est appuyé sur des réunions quotidiennes de crise AP–HP et de GH, des groupes de travail disciplinaires et des tableaux de bord quotidiens fiabilisés qui ont permis d'optimiser les actions. Des actions innovantes ont été mises en place : cellules de régulation des entrées et des sorties de réanimation, suivi des patients infectés à domicile, traçage des contacts, transferts interrégionaux de patients de réanimation. Les éléments clés de la réussite ont été les relations entre direction générale et DMC, l'articulation entre l'échelon central (AP–HP) et celui des GH, la mobilisation de tous les acteurs vers un objectif unique identifié et la mobilisation de l'ensemble des soignants, y compris les étudiants. Parmi les pistes d'amélioration soulignées, il convient de citer la généralisation des DMC hors AP–HP, conformément à la réglementation, le développement de la connaissance du mode de fonctionnement de crise, l'anticipation de la formation à la gestion de crise, la réalisation d'une information quotidienne de l'ensemble des acteurs des actions menées dans une crise de longue durée et la participation des représentants des usagers. La gestion de la recherche en temps de crise reste à inventer au niveau national, voire européen.Alternate abstract: Feedback on the medical crisis management during the first phase of the COVID-19 epidemic was provided to the Assistance publique-Hôpitaux de Paris (AP–HP), the largest university hospital center in Europe. The AP–HP has one AP–HP medical crisis director (DMC), 6 hospital group (HG) DMCs, and one DMC for each of the 39 hospital sites. Management was based on daily AP–HP and GH crisis meetings, disciplinary working groups and reliable daily dashboards, which enabled the optimization of actions. Innovative actions have been implemented: regulation units for intensive care unit entries and exits, follow-up of infected patients at home, contact tracing, and inter-regional transfers of critically-ill patients. The key elements of success were the relationship between General management, DMC, the articulation between the central level and those of the GH, the mobilization of all the actors towards a unique identified objective, and the mobilization of all the caregivers, including students. Among the highlighted avenues for improvement, it is worth mentioning the generalization of DMCs outside the AP–HP in accordance with the regulations, the development of knowledge of the crisis operating mode, the anticipation of training in crisis management, the provision of daily information to all those involved in actions carried out in a long-term crisis, and the participation of care-user representatives. The management of research in times of crisis remains to be invented at the national or even European level.

Organization encounters a new virus: A cautionary tale of othering and (not) learning

The world's dire experience with a new coronavirus has shown that the (re)organization embedded in managing a virus and knowledge on organization(s) and management are out of joint. This article entwines life story into reflections on the pandemic to illustrate how knowledge relations are afflicted by othering that constrains learning and facilitates the conditions of possibility for precarious pandemics. In doing so, the account scrutinizes both knowledge activities and domains of scholarship as it navigates tensions between the works of Latour and Foucault. The article is structured into four parts. Theoria focuses on the textual body and the politics of ‘willful blindness' that segregate the ‘theoretical other';Praxis addresses the human body, operational knowledge and the ‘everyday geopolitics of fear' that heroicize the ‘essential other';Regimen examines the social body, regulatory knowledge and the ‘political economy of truth' that contests the ‘prescribing other' and Poiesis addresses the global body, productive knowledge and the international geopolitics that distance the cultural and national other. Each activity poses relational tensions that confront organization which compel us to extend organizational scholarship in ways that facilitate its articulation with scholarship on the virus and invite us to approach knowledge on pandemic (re)organization as a joint cause. © The Author(s) 2023.

Smart Face Masks for COVID-19 Pandemic Management: A Concise Review of Emerging Architectures, Challenges and Future Research Directions

Smart sensing technology has been playing tremendous roles in digital healthcare management over time with great impacts. Lately, smart sensing has awoken the world by the advent of smart face masks (SFMs) in the global fight against the deadly Coronavirus (Covid-19) pandemic. In turn, a number of research studies on innovative SFM architectures and designs are emerging. However, there is currently no study that has systematically been conducted to identify and comparatively analyze the emerging architectures and designs of SFMs, their contributions, socio-technological implications, and current challenges. In this article, we investigate the emerging SFMs in response to Covid-19 pandemic and provide a concise review of their key features and characteristics, design, smart technologies, and architectures. We also highlight and discuss the socio-technological opportunities posed by the use of SFMs and finally present directions for future research. Our findings reveal four key features that can be used to evaluate SFMs to include reusability, self-power generation ability, energy awareness and aerosol filtration efficiency. We discover that SFM has potential for effective use in human tracking, contact tracing, disease detection and diagnosis or in monitoring asymptotic populations in future pandemics. Some SFMs have also been carefully designed to provide comfort and safety when used by patients with other respiratory diseases or comorbidities. However, some identified challenges include standards and quality control, ethical, security and privacy concerns. © 2001-2012 IEEE.

COVID-19 Close Contact Management: An Evolution of Operations Harnessing the Digital Edge.

Singapore, like many other nations globally, had to contend with significant caseloads arising from the Coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic. This paper focuses on using technology as an intervention for pandemic management. With scant scientific evidence on effective medications and vaccinations (i.e., pharmaceutical interventions) initially, disease containment strategies predominated during the early phases. Non-pharmaceutical interventions were critical in slowing disease transmission and preventing public healthcare institutions from being overwhelmed. Such interventions could be broadly divided into case-based interventions (e.g., contact tracing and quarantining of close contacts) and population-based measures (e.g., mask use and social distancing). The paper describes Singapore's experience in the operational implementation of contact-based interventions, and illustrates how harnessing the digital edge enabled fast, accurate, resource-efficient, and flexible execution of ground operations. Singapore applied digital technology and developed an integrated system to facilitate issuance and acknowledgement of quarantine orders, submission of COVID-19 test results, and collection of antigen rapid test kits at the population level. Data was obtained from this proprietary centralised, automated platform. The paper demonstrates how such simple, yet elegant systems could have a direct impact on disease transmission in an outbreak setting and on population health. Moving forward, it is recommended that technology and digital solutions feature prominently in work process designs beyond COVID-19 such as in the management of emerging infectious diseases and non-communicable diseases.

Community Behavioral Change and Management of COVID-19 Pandemic: Evidence from Indonesia.

Objectives: This study aims to investigate the effect of information and motivation on behavioral change related to the COVID-19 pandemic management in Indonesia. It also examines the role of behavioral skills in mediating the information-behavioral change relationship and the motivation-behavioral change relationship. Method: This study employs the partial least squares structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM) to test the research hypotheses. Using the online survey method to collect data, 845 responses were obtained from several main islands of Indonesia. Results: The results of the study show that information and motivation positively influence people's behavior changes. Behavioral skills mediate the influence of information and motivation on behavioral change. This study contributes to the development of the information-motivation-behavior model (IMB-Model). It also provides additional knowledge on pandemic management in the research setting of Indonesia as a country that has complex characteristics in terms of religion and belief, demography, culture, economy, and politics. Conclusions: This study concludes that the success of Indonesia in dealing with the pandemic greatly depends on the success of changing the community behavior. Providing reliable and consistent information enhances people's motivation to build their behavioral skills. With increased behavioral skills, people have changed their behavior in fighting against COVID-19 by obeying health protocols, participating in vaccination programs, and practicing a healthier lifestyle.