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Background: Globally traumatic brain injuries (TBIs) are the leading cause of death in people under the age of 45. 2020 saw a series of social lockdowns as a response to the COVID-19 pandemic. We aimed to unveil the impact of the different levels of lockdown on TBI incidence at Tshepong Hospital. Method: A retrospective review of patients with TBIs during the first 30 days of each of the 5 lockdown levels, between 1st of April -20th October 2020 was conducted. Each lockdown level was compared to a control of a similar period in 2019. Results: Level 5 lockdown resulted in a 66% reduction in total incidence of TBI, with a decrease in the daily incidence median value to 0 when compared to its control group median of 1 (P-value 0.004). However, Level 3 and 2 resulted in a significant 133% and 200% increase respectively in TBI incidence for similar period the year before.There was a 0,75% decrease in total trauma during the non-lockdown periods in relation to the lock down periods with a lockdown mean incidence of 53,4 (std Dev. 26.6) and non-lockdown mean of 53 (std Dev 20.8). Conclusion: The cumulative effect of the lockdowns made miniscule changes in the overall TBI incidence but led to significant variation in TBI incidence in the comparative months. A "rebound trauma" phenomena is observed in transitioning from severe social restrictions to milder ones with unemployment and unbanning of alcohol as possible contributary factors. Further studies are needed to investigate these complex interactions.
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We estimate the willingness to pay to escape different bundles of social restrictions imposed by the authorities in Iceland during COVID-19 using contingent valuation methods. Average willingness to pay to escape a bundle of social restrictions for 1 month is USD 139, amounting to approximately 2% of monthly GDP per capita in Iceland. We also find a net preference for substantial entry restrictions at the country's border. © 2023 Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group.
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PURPOSE: This study investigated the impact of different levels of COVID-19 social restrictions (social distancing in 2020, large-scale home confinement in 2021) on myopia prevalence and behaviours in a preschool population with school-based eyecare programme. METHODS: Repeated cross-sectional surveys were conducted between August and December in 2019, 2020 and 2021. Children aged 5-6 years received ocular examinations, and questionnaires were answered by caregivers before the day of the examination. The main outcome measures were the changes in after-school time spent on homework, screen-based devices and outdoors. Secondary outcome was the change in myopia prevalence (spherical equivalent [SE] ≤ -0.5 D in either eye after cycloplegia). RESULTS: A total of 9997 preschoolers were included in the analysis. Under tighter restrictions, more preschoolers spent ≥1 h/day on screen-based devices (42.8% in 2019, 45.2% in 2020, 48.9% in 2021, p < 0.001), and fewer preschoolers spent ≥30 min/day on after-school outdoor activities (49.5% in 2019, 46.0% in 2020, 41.0% in 2021, p < 0.001) on weekdays. A similar trend was found on weekends. While more preschoolers spent ≥2 h/day on screen-based devices (35.3% in 2019, 38.5% in 2020, 43.0% in 2021, p < 0.001), fewer preschoolers spent ≥2 h/day on outdoor activities (41.7% in 2019, 41.7% in 2020, 34.0% in 2021, p < 0.001). The mean SE and myopia prevalence were stable (9.1% in 2019, 10.3% in 2020, 9.4% in 2021, p = 0.707). CONCLUSION: Our study showed dose-dependent effect of social restrictions on near-work and outdoor behaviours at home. The prevalence of myopia did not increase significantly with short-term cessation of school-based eyecare programmes.
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Objective. The study of the characteristics of the social activity of young people in conditions of restrictions associated with forced isolation, aimed at identifying the features of the manifestation of its compensatory forms due to social frustration. Background. The psychological aspects of the problem of social activity of an individual limited by new social norms and rules due to the spread of coronavirus infection require a more complete study. In this regard the question of the characteristics that determine the characteristics of youth activity in different spheres of life. Study design. The paper analyzes the specificity in the manifestation of social activity among Russian youth in connection with forced social restrictions. The dependence of various forms of social activity by its psychological characteristics. The hypothesis about the socially oriented orientation of youth activity in conditions of social isolation is tested. Participants. Representatives of Russian youth: 409 people (74% women, 26% men) from 17 to 30 years old (M=21.35;SD=3.78). Measurements. Questionnaire for the study of socio-demographic characteristics and the severity of various forms of social activity (R.M. Shamionov et al.);the methods "Personality activity in conditions of forced social restrictions” (N.V. Usova et al.). Results. In the conditions of forced social restrictions youth have increased family-household, civil, educational-developmental, Internet-network and Internet-search forms of activity, the severity of leisure and socio-economic activity decreases, and there are no changes in its other forms of manifestation. Leisure, civic, socio-economic and educational-developmental activity of young people is characterized by frustration at the consequences of forced social restrictions, the severity of compensatory forms and the activation of additional personal resources. Internet-network and Internet-search activity is aimed at social contacts and itself acts as a form of compensation for other types of activity during the period of self-isolation. Conclusions. Changes in the manifestation of the social activity of young people during the period of social isolation are diachronic in nature. The main characteristics reflecting the specificity of social activity in its various forms are established. The compensatory forms of social activity and the factors of its determination in conditions of forced social restrictions are revealed. © 2022 Authors. All rights reserved.
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Background: During the lockdown for COVID-19, children were limited in a number of activities which are essential for the development of executive functions (play, social interaction, and organized sport). Earlier studies found an increase in executive function issues in children during the pandemic, based on caregivers' reports. Objective: The present study was a pioneer in exploring the dynamics of children's executive function development during the lockdown. Our purpose was to explore the effect of the lockdown on the growth of executive functions in children over a one-year period, as compared to their peers before the pandemic. Design: The sample consisted of two cohorts of children. All the children had been attending the same kindergartens but in different periods of time. The executive functions of both groups were assessed twice, with a year's break in-between (the first group was assessed before the pandemic; the second, during the pandemic). These groups were comparable in gender composition, age, and family's place of residence. Results: The results have confirmed concerns about the slower growth of executive functioning in children during the lockdown versus their peers before the pandemic, especially for cognitive flexibility and working memory. Inhibition was not significantly affected by the lockdown. Moderation analysis showed that the lockdown impacted girls differently than boys in terms of working memory. The negative effect of social restrictions on working memory was significantly higher in females. Conclusion: Our findings illuminate the negative effects the pandemic-related social restrictions had on the growth of children's cognitive flexibility and working memory. For working memory, the effect of social isolation varied depending on the child's gender.
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Wastewater-based epidemiology (WBE) may be successfully used to comprehensively monitor and determine the scale and dynamics of some infections in the community. We monitored severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) RNA in raw wastewater samples from Porto Alegre, Southern Brazil. The samples were collected and analyzed every week between May 2020 to May 2021. Meanwhile, different social restrictions were applied according to the number of hospitalized patients in the region. Weekly samples were obtained from two wastewater treatment plants (WWTP) (named Navegantes and Serraria). To determine the SARS-CoV-2 RNA titers in wastewater, we performed RT-qPCR analysis targeting the N gene (N1). The highest titer of SARS-CoV-2 RNA was observed between epidemiological weeks (EW) 33-37 (August), 42-43 (October), 45-46 (November), 49-51 (December) in 2020, and 1-3 (January), 7-13 (February to March) in 2021, with viral loads ranging from 1 x 106 ∼ 3 x 106 genomic copies/Liter. An increase in positive confirmed cases followed such high viral loads. Depending on the sampling method used, positive cases increased in 6∼7 days and 15 days after the rise of viral RNA titers in wastewater, with composite sampling methods showing a lower time lag and a higher resolution on the analyses. The results showed a direct relation between strict social restrictions and the loads of detected RNA reduction in wastewater, corroborating the number of confirmed cases. Differences in viral loads between different sampling points and methods were observed, as composite samples showed more stable results during the analyzed period. Besides, viral loads obtained from samples collected at Serraria WWTP were consistently higher than the ones obtained at Navegantes WWTP, indicating differences in local dynamics of SARS-CoV-2 spread in different regions of Porto Alegre. In conclusion, wastewater sampling to monitor SARS-CoV-2 is a robust tool to evaluate the viral loads contributing to hospitalized patients' data and confirmed cases. In addition, SARS-CoV-2 detection in sewage may inform and alert the government when the number of asymptomatic or non/tested patients is in evidence.
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This study aimed to examine the dominant innovation policy elements of the social restrictions to fight the COVID-19 pandemic in Jakarta. The data was obtained using a Computer-Aided Qualitative Data Analysis Software named the NVivo 12 Plus application, accompanied by purposive sampling from four online media sources. These sites, namely Detik.com, Kompas.com, Liputan6.com, and Kumparan.com, were accessed for their provision of information about the COVID-19 social restriction policy in DKI Jakarta. Subsequently, the results showed that the Jakarta government's decision on the Large-Scale Social Restriction-PSBB Stage 1-5 and PPKM Stage consider relative advantage and trialability aspects. Following the proposed policy design, the Jakarta Government expects an easier adoption of the innovation in slowing the spread of the virus. Relative advantage and trialability were revealed to enable developing countries to manage or control the number of pandemic cases and the ensuing economic impact, as well as innovate their policies in practical cases based on the field situation. This study only focused on Jakarta as one of the South East capital cities that successfully dealt with COVID-19. Therefore, future studies should obtain policy designs from other continents that successfully tackled the pandemic in different situations.
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The COVID-19 pandemic has forced cities worldwide to implement social distancing on a large scale and even lockdowns. City lockdowns are considered a public health policy to reduce virus spread and at the same time to protect vulnerable groups of the population. However, studying the implications of city lockdowns on urban populations’ mental and emotional wellbeing has been widely neglected. Using a case study of Indonesia’s capital and the largest metropolitan area of Jakarta, this study investigates the temporal dynamics of emotions experienced by the citizen during two months of city-scale lockdown. This paper uses Twitter text data as the source for emotional analysis with almost 9000 tweets. The study suggests that positive emotions were more common than negative texts across all periods under study, with lockdown acting as momentum for enhancing family gatherings and serving as a reminder of the importance of health, as the common positive emotions identified. The study provides evidence on the possibility of crowdsourcing data such as Twitter as an alternative source of data for urban analytics that allows researchers to understand the effect of activities and events in a certain location on its citizens.
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This article describes the efforts of the Papuan province administration in dealing with coronavirus cases (Corona Virus Disease-19) (COVID-19). The approach for dealing with it may be examined by knowing the efforts, actions, and policies created and executed by the Papuan provincial government. A deliberative policy analysis technique is employed to analyze this situation. This method examines the narratives and arguments of authorities in order to comprehend decision-making and policy execution. This essay takes a qualitative approach, using descriptive analytic methodologies. Meanwhile, a literature research is being utilized to gather data, which includes books, journal articles, newspapers, internet news, and authoritative institution websites. The findings demonstrate that the COVID-19 epidemic has had a substantial influence on the people who live in the region, beginning with increased unemployment, food poverty, migration owing to job instability, increased criminality, and so on. Various laws have been established to combat the epidemic as a form of responsibility for the Papuan administration to the people, including the closure of human entry to Papua province. This is accomplished by shutting down airports and seaports. This policy is considered as contradictory to the central government's policies. This study concluded that wisdom is required in reacting to measures implemented by local governments to rescue persons impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic since they are better aware of the situations in their region. © 2023, Association Res Militaris. All rights reserved.
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Purpose: Social restrictions and government-mandated lockdowns implemented worldwide to kerb the SARS-CoV-2 virus disrupted our social interactions, behaviours, and routines. While many studies have examined how the pandemic influenced loneliness and poor mental health, such as depression, almost none have focussed on social anxiety. Further, how the change in social restrictions affected change in mental-health and well-being has not yet been explored. Methods: This is a longitudinal cohort study in community dwellers who were surveyed across three timepoints in the first six months of the pandemic. We measured loneliness, social anxiety, depression, and social restrictions severity that were objectively coded in a sample from Australia, United States, and United Kingdom (n = 1562) at each time point. Longitudinal data were analysed using a multivariate latent growth curve model. Results: Loneliness reduced, depression marginally reduced, and social anxiety symptoms increased as social restrictions eased. Specific demographic factors (e.g., younger age, unemployment, lower wealth, and living alone) all influenced loneliness, depression, and social anxiety at baseline. No demographic factors influenced changes for loneliness; we found that those aged over 25 years reduced faster on depression, while those younger than 25 years and unemployed increased faster on social anxiety over time. Conclusion: We found evidence that easing social restrictions brought about additional burden to people who experienced higher social anxiety symptoms. As country-mandated lockdown and social restrictions eased, people are more likely report higher social anxiety as they readjust into their social environment. Mental health practitioners are likely to see higher levels of social anxiety in vulnerable communities even as social restrictions ease.
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The COVID-19 pandemic has prompted all countries to adopt restraining measures to mitigate the spread of the disease. Usually, large-scale disasters tend to be accompanied by significant increases of psychological distress, depression and anxiety. Confinement measures imposed during the COVID-19 pandemic are likely to have similar consequences. In the present study we aim to evaluate how COVID-19 affected the overall psychological functioning of Portuguese individuals by providing a comparison of current data with status prior to the COVID-19 pandemic. The study sample was composed of 150 cognitively healthy participants. Results show an overall maintenance of cognitive capacities, although subjective cognitive decline complaints significantly increased during the pandemic. Regarding mental health, restraining measures culminated in an aggravation of depressive and decrease of the perceived quality of life, associated with feelings of loneliness and perceived social isolation. Finally, higher levels of pre-COVID-19 quality of life seem to play a protective role against depression and anxiety and predict less difficulties in emotion regulation, feelings of solitude and cognitive complaints. In sum, confinement due to COVID-19 implied an aggravation of the mental health of the Portuguese population, which appears to have been attenuated in those with higher pre-pandemic levels of perceived quality of life.
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AIMS/INSTRUCTION: During the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic, the lockdowns in Europe raised concerns about negative effects on glycemic control and body composition in patients with diabetes. In Japan, voluntary-based restrictions were imposed as the declaration of a state of emergency (DSE), whose metabolic consequences have not been fully investigated. We carried out a single-center retrospective study to evaluate changes in glycemic control and body composition in outpatients with glucose intolerance after the DSE. MATERIALS AND METHODS: We enrolled outpatients with glucose intolerance: (i) for whom longitudinal data about body composition were available; (ii) who participated in dietary follow up with nutritionists; and (iii) whose laboratory data included glycated hemoglobin (HbA1c) levels before and after the DSE. RESULTS: Among 415 patients, we found no significant changes in HbA1c overall after the DSE. Bodyweight and fat mass increased significantly, whereas skeletal mass decreased significantly. HbA1c changes after the DSE were significantly correlated with changes in bodyweight and fat mass. In 128 patients whose HbA1c levels increased ≥0.3%, changes in bodyweight and fat mass were significantly larger than those in the other 287 patients. With regard to lifestyle changes, increased snacking was likely to worsen glycemic control (odds ratio 1.76, P = 0.036). CONCLUSIONS: COVID-19 restrictions in Japan had unfavorable metabolic consequences for patients with glucose intolerance, highlighted by increased bodyweight and body fat, and decreased skeletal muscle. In addition, lifestyle changes, such as increased snacking, might worsen glycemic control. Clinical attention and interventions are required to prevent such metabolic changes.
Subject(s)
COVID-19 , Diabetes Mellitus, Type 2 , Glucose Intolerance , Humans , Glycated Hemoglobin/analysis , Retrospective Studies , Glycemic Control , Blood Glucose/metabolism , COVID-19/prevention & control , Japan/epidemiology , Communicable Disease Control , Body Composition , Body WeightABSTRACT
The COVID-19 pandemic has heavily impacted academics' professional and personal lives, forcing many research groups (labs) to shift from an academic system primarily based on in-person work to an almost full-time remote workforce during lockdowns. Labs are generally characterized by a strong lab culture that underpins all research and social activities of its members. Lab culture traditionally builds on the pillars of in-person communication, knowledge sharing, and all social and professional activities that promote collaboration, team building, scientific productivity, and well-being. Here, we use the experience of our research group facing the COVID-19 pandemic to illustrate how proactively reinforcing lab culture and its positive outcomes have been essential to our lab when transitioning from an in-person to a remote lab environment, and through its ongoing evolution toward a hybrid remote/in-person model. We argue that the proactive promotion of lab culture in research groups can foster academic resilience during crises, helping research groups to maintain their capacity to conduct scientific activities while preserving a sustainable life/work balance and a healthy mental condition.
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How did people change their behavior over the different phases of the UK COVID-19 restrictions, and how did these changes affect their risk of being exposed to infection? Time-use diary surveys are unique in providing a complete chronicle of daily behavior: 24-h continuous records of the populations' activities, their social context, and their location. We present results from four such surveys, collected in real time from representative UK samples, both before and at three points over the course of the current pandemic. Comparing across the four waves, we find evidence of substantial changes in the UK population's behavior relating to activities, locations, and social context. We assign different levels of risk to combinations of activities, locations, and copresence to compare risk-related behavior across successive "lockdowns." We find evidence that during the second lockdown (November 2020), there was an increase in high-risk behaviors relative to the first (starting March 2020). This increase is shown to be associated with more paid work time in the workplace. At a time when capacity is still limited both in respect of immunization and track-trace technology, governments must continue to rely on changes in people's daily behaviors to contain the spread of COVID-19 and similar viruses. Time-use diary information of this type, collected in real time across the course of the COVID-19 pandemic, can provide policy makers with information to assess and quantify changes in daily behaviors and the impact they are likely to have on overall behavioral-associated risks. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2022 APA, all rights reserved)
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BACKGROUND: The international health emergency caused by the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), which, at the end of 2019, hit the world, forced the governments of all countries to adopt stringent restrictive measures to contain the spread of the virus. Several studies have revealed worsening levels of anxiety, depression and perceived stress related to these restrictions and the resulting lifestyle changes. Some studies have also confirmed the presence of a relationship between SARS-CoV-2-related emotional distress and drinking behavior. Indeed, is a wellknown fact that alcohol consumption is one of the behavioral strategies used to reduce negative emotional states. However, it was documented that young people developed different responses to alcohol use during the pandemic than adults. OBJECTIVE: The aim of this work was to investigate the consumption habits of young Italians and how the consumption and purchase of alcoholic beverages have changed following the pandemic. New ways of drinking alcohol were also interesting to observe, such as online. METHODS: Young people between 18 and 35 years old were subjected to an anonymous questionnaire of 22 questions on the adoption of forms of behavior at risk through alcohol consumption, the quantity and occasions of preferential consumption, and on the methods and quantities of alcoholic beverage purchase, before and during the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic. The subjects who declared themselves "non-drinkers" were not included in the statistical survey. RESULTS: About 33% of the enrolled "drinkers" (268/823), adopted risky forms of alcoholic behavior. Males reported a higher average habit of drinking wine or alcohol (M = 1.9953 ± 1.39743, F = 1.7373 ± 1.36688, p <0.005); an increased frequency of drinking (M = 2.3025 ± 0.80610 F = 2.0494 ± 0.75043 p <0.001); a higher average number of drinks consumed (M = 1.5182 ± 0.85646, F = 1.2618 ± 0.53292, p <0.001) and binge drinking to the greatest extent (M = 1.1933 ± 0.96522 F = 0.8176 ± 0.85446 p <0.001). Education and employment were significantly correlated with the frequency of alcohol consumption (r = 0.107 p <0.005 and r = 0.120 p = 0.001 respectively). Subjects reported buying alcoholic beverages during the pandemic with a frequency of "less than once a month" (N = 291, 35.36%) and mainly in shops (N = 556, 67.56%), while before the pandemic they mainly bought alcohol once a week (N = 431, 52.37%) and predominantly in bars / clubs (N = 619, 75.21%). New ways of drinking alcohol such as online drinking, have not been significantly identified. CONCLUSION: A change in alcohol consumed and alcohol purchased before and during the SARSCoV- 2 pandemic was revealed.
Subject(s)
COVID-19 , SARS-CoV-2 , Adult , Male , Humans , Adolescent , Young Adult , Alcohol Drinking/epidemiology , Pandemics , COVID-19/epidemiology , Alcoholic BeveragesABSTRACT
Based on the data obtained from wordometers per April 2021, coronavirus infection cases throughout the world reached 141,982,642 cases. 3,032,005 people died and 120,513,253 people recovered. In handling Covid-19, Indonesia has implemented Social Distancing and Rapid Test. The government has issued some regulations related to the Large- Scale Social Restrictions (known as PSBB/Pembatasan Sosial Berskala Besar). At the end of January 2020, China has immediately and assertively locked down Wuhan, a city with a total population of 11 million people. It was the biggest lockdown made throughout history. The problem in this research is how the governments Indonesia and China dealt with Covid-19 in its incipient phase. This research used a qualitative method based on the randomly-selected mapped news in accordance with the research focus and social distancing regulations enforced in Indonesia and China. Furthermore, those materials were systematically classified to prove that social distancing regulations can well reduce the spread of Covid-19 both in Indonesia and China. The research results show that the COVID-19 handling in each country is different. © 2022
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The spread of COVID-19 has recently become a public concern. There are many public emotions regarding implementing the Large-Scale Social Restrictions (PSBB), which was especially implemented in Jakarta, first implemented in Indonesia. People have various emotions mirroring their tweets in making statements on social media, especially Twitter. Emotional expressions can be joy, sadness, anger, and fear. This study aims to determine the impact of the implementation of PSBB in reducing the spread of COVID-19 on people's emotional factors on Twitter. The method used in this research is the SentiStrength method and Support Vector Machine. Furthermore, the comparison between the two methods is completed to determine which one is better. The tweet data used were 12,735 lines from 10 April 2020 to 21 August 2020. The highest accuracy achieved of SentiStrength and SVM is 88.33% and 73.33%, respectively. Similarly, f-measure of SentiStrength (88.14%) outperforms SVM (75%). This research shows that the implementation of PSBB on public emotional factors on Twitter is that happy emotions with the highest sentiment are positive sentiments, reaching 5246 sentiments. © 2022. All Rights Reserved.
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Background: One of the successful measures to curb COVID-19 spread in large populations is the implementation of a movement restriction order. Globally, it was observed that countries implementing strict movement control were more successful in controlling the spread of the virus as compared with those with less stringent measures. Society's adherence to the movement control order has helped expedite the process to flatten the pandemic curve as seen in countries such as China and Malaysia. At the same time, there are countries facing challenges with society's nonconformity toward movement restriction orders due to various claims such as human rights violations as well as sociocultural and economic issues. In Indonesia, society's adherence to its large-scale social restrictions (LSSRs) order is also a challenge to achieve. Indonesia is regarded as among the worst in Southeast Asian countries in terms of managing the spread of COVID-19. It is proven by the increased number of daily confirmed cases and the total number of deaths, which was more than 6.21% (1351/21,745) of total active cases as of May 2020. Objective: The aim of this study was to explore public sentiments and emotions toward the LSSR and identify issues, fear, and reluctance to observe this restriction among the Indonesian public. Methods: This study adopts a sentiment analysis method with a supervised machine learning approach on COVID-19-related posts on selected media platforms (Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, and YouTube). The analysis was also performed on COVID-19-related news contained in more than 500 online news platforms recognized by the Indonesian Press Council. Social media posts and news originating from Indonesian online media between March 31 and May 31, 2020, were analyzed. Emotion analysis on Twitter platform was also performed to identify collective public emotions toward the LSSR. Results: The study found that positive sentiment surpasses other sentiment categories by 51.84% (n = 1,002,947) of the total data (N = 1,934,596) collected via the search engine. Negative sentiment was recorded at 35.51% (686,892/1,934,596) and neutral sentiment at 12.65% (244,757/1,934,596). The analysis of Twitter posts also showed that the majority of public have the emotion of "trust" toward the LSSR. Conclusions: Public sentiment toward the LSSR appeared to be positive despite doubts on government consistency in executing the LSSR. The emotion analysis also concluded that the majority of people believe in LSSR as the best method to break the chain of COVID-19 transmission. Overall, Indonesians showed trust and expressed hope toward the government's ability to manage this current global health crisis and win against COVID-19. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2022 APA, all rights reserved)
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The measures taken to contain the spread of COVID-19 in 2020 included restrictions of people's mobility and reductions in economic activities. These drastic changes in daily life, enforced through national lockdowns, led to abrupt reductions of anthropogenic CO2 emissions in urbanized areas all over the world. To examine the effect of social restrictions on local emissions of CO2, we analysed district level CO2 fluxes measured by the eddy-covariance technique from 13 stations in 11 European cities. The data span several years before the pandemic until October 2020 (six months after the pandemic began in Europe). All sites showed a reduction in CO2 emissions during the national lockdowns. The magnitude of these reductions varies in time and space, from city to city as well as between different areas of the same city. We found that, during the first lockdowns, urban CO2 emissions were cut with respect to the same period in previous years by 5% to 87% across the analysed districts, mainly as a result of limitations on mobility. However, as the restrictions were lifted in the following months, emissions quickly rebounded to their pre-COVID levels in the majority of sites.
Subject(s)
Air Pollutants , Air Pollution , COVID-19 , Air Pollutants/analysis , Air Pollution/analysis , COVID-19/epidemiology , Carbon Dioxide/analysis , Communicable Disease Control , Environmental Monitoring , Humans , Particulate Matter/analysis , SARS-CoV-2ABSTRACT
AFRICAN DEVELOPMENT : The COVID-19 pandemic has forced governments around the world to impose containment measures to prevent the rapid spread of the corona virus. The Indonesian government implemented "large-scale social restrictions," which have impacted farming and farmers' food security. Farmers are both producers and consumers of food and, therefore, have been facing new challenges due to transport restrictions, price spikes for inputs, price drops for their produce, or conditions which aggravated cooperation, such as social distancing. This study aims at analysing the challenges of the containments from a smallholder farmer perspective and examining farmers' coping potential. A digital survey with 323 farmers has been designed as comparative observational research in Toraja, South Sulawesi, and selected regions of Java. The Bonferroni Multiple Comparison Test was used to test for significance regarding socioeconomic factors and space. A logistic regression model extracted determinants for crisis coping. Results reveal, that female farmers worry more about COVID-19 outbreak compared to men at a significant level. In contrast, male farmers, particularly in Java, are more concerned about social restrictions due to limited mobility. Food price spikes were reported in both regions, with sharp increases for fish, fruits, and vegetables in Java, for staples in Toraja, and for meat and sugar in both regions. Food groups, that trade through agents and brokers or are transported longer distances were affected most due to their complex and long supply chains that were disrupted during the restrictions. In Java, farmers face multiple shocks, of which climate change was reported even more often than the pandemic related shocks. Not being able to help each other on the farm due to social distancing is a significant concern of farmers in Toraja. As a result of food market disturbances, farmers began to grow and eat more vegetables and fruits. In conclusion, food security for farmers slightly decreased due to affordability, and market disruptions already point to long-term income losses. The study team recommends to promote smallholders' healthy food production, value addition and direct end-consumer linkages to build back better their livelihoods postCOVID-19