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Objective: To assess the global epidemic of Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) in December 2022 and the risk of importation. Methods: According to the daily COVID-19 data publicly released by Johns Hopkins University, combined with the policy stringency index published by the University of Oxford, an epidemiological description method was used to provide a comprehensive and timely assessment of the global epidemiological risk overview, a comprehensive assessment of the epidemic trends in each continent and key countries, as well as a comprehensive analysis of the epidemic and prevention and control policies in 14 neighboring countries. The assessment results for each country are expressed as countries of gl, "countries of the general concern in each continent" and "neighboring countries of special concern". Results: Compared with the previous month, the number of confirmed cases and deaths respectively increased by 38.92% and 25.95% globally in February 2022. Daily new confirmed cases and deaths in the Asia continued to rise in December. The time taken for every new 50 mill confirmed cases and 50 thousand deaths globally has increased significantly. Japan, Korea, America and France were countries with global concern. Brazil, Argentina, Mexico, Mauritius and Australia were the countries of general concern in each continent. Russia with was the special count among the 14 neighboring countries. Conclusion: The global daily new confirmed cases and deaths showed a downward trend after mid-December, but the epidemic situation was prominent in some regions and countries. information and provide timely warnings.
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The aim of the article was to describe and analyse the pandemic's spread and its impacts, as well as governments' and other actors' responses, focusing on Kenya, Mauritius, Nigeria, and South Africa, noting that South Africa has been the epicenter of the pandemic, with about half of all reported infections on the continent (by September), whereas Mauritius has stemmed the spread to just a few hundred infections. Their analyses relies on interviews and conversations with diverse people in these countries from government, business, and civil society organisations, as well as reports by the media and local and international agencies, and some of the early scholarly papers, adding that with an overview of the spread of the disease in Africa, explaining why the available data are not very reliable and why that is important, focusing on the significant economic and social implications of governments' "lockdown" regulations, meant to stem the spread of the virus. The article also presents five contextual features of the COVID-19 pandemic in Africa that need attention in ongoing efforts to limit the spread of the disease and to mitigate its impact: (1) people living in informal settlements and relying on informal work find it difficult or even impossible to adhere to "shelter-in-place" rules, and this reduces the efficacy and social acceptability of lockdown regulations, (2) in a context of poverty and food insecurity, where most workers are in the informal economy and lack social welfare protection, the social consequences of economic restrictions are severe, (3) In most African countries, states lack the fiscal resources and organisational capabilities to effectively mitigate the pandemic's impacts on their economies and communities, (4) The informal economy is particularly hard hit by the pandemic, and this is crucial in the African context, where the overwhelming majority of workers are informal, and (5) This also includes the pandemic's overbearing negative impacts especially on women and girls. Women's and girls' rights must be prioritised in all disaster response measures, and women need active participation in all such decision making. Such contextually embedded initiatives and innovations give insight and inspiration for responding to COVID-19 in Africa in the next months, and in the recovery effort in the years to come.
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This special issue contains 14 papers from the AEEMA Meeting focusing on the theme entitled "What changes for the management of animals' health crises". Topics of papers include: the management of animals' health crises and introduction to the meeting;evolution of societies perception and social acceptability of sanitary control measures;evolution of the health governance: to adapt the French health system to the new challenge;new challenges for risk management of animal health;evolution of preparedness for the management of animal disease crisis;feedback from the fipronil crisis;towards bovine tuberculosis eradication in Republic of Ireland, including European badgers' vaccination (a review);management of foot-and-mouth disease in Mauritius and Rodrigues: a vaccine strategy for eradication;health and biodiversity during anthropocene;Covid-19 and wild animals;Covid-19 and companion animals;Covid-19 and farmed animals;Covid-19 and laboratory animals;and Preventing SARS-CoV-2 transmission from animals to human beings.
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The economy of Small Island Developing States (SIDS) is highly dependent on tourism and travel sector. Under the impact of COVID-19, these islands have suffered strongly. Possible recovery strategies are tested through exploring the concept of risk perception as an important factor to influence the behaviour intention under the framework of theory of planned behaviour (TPB). A behavioural simulation is built to help evaluate tourism policies. This paper takes Maldives as an example. Four strategies are tested in the model: social distancing, tax reduction strategy, travel bubble strategy and joint strategy. The results show that the most effective way to change tourist behaviour intention is the travel bubble strategy. The results also indicate that the reduction in tourism arrivals may bring opportunities for local ecosystem recovery. This study exemplifies the advantage of using the system dynamics approach when the past pattern is not a good predictor for the future by making predictions based on how the system works.
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Our world is currently fighting with highly infectious and deadly severe acute respiratory syndrome-coronavirus-2 virus which has no specific remedy yet. No study focused on reviewing applied clinical management and treatment protocol of coronavirus disease-2019 (COVID-19) by health ministry of different nations till date. Therefore, this study focuses to identify and compare clinical management and treatment protocol guidelines for COVID-19 from 8 South Asian countries. This study will assist the healthcare workers and authorities of different nations by sharing the key information from potential guidelines to treat COVID-19 patients. Necessary information has been collected from the clinical management guidelines for COVID-19 in Health Ministry website of India, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Pakistan, Afghanistan, Nepal, Bhutan, and Maldives. Though clinical management practices vary from country to country, all of these countries are utilizing high flow oxygen therapy and mechanical ventilation for critical cases. Moreover, some potential drugs have been suggested for treatment by most of the countries but were not recommended yet as all of them are under clinical trials. Hydroxychloroquine has been suggested by most of these countries. All the countries are developing and updating their guidelines for clinical management of COVID-19 patients. It is worth mentioning that the recovery rate of Bangladesh, India, Sri Lanka, Pakistan, Afghanistan, Nepal, Bhutan, and Maldives is 63.52%, 76.24%, 94.88%, 94.47%, 83.65%, 71.5%, 71.14%, and 83.83% respectively. The oxygen therapy and empirical antibiotic for preventing secondary infection have been used commonly in most of these countries as an effective treatment.
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This paper provides an early assessment of the effects of the COVID-19 outbreak and of subsequent response measures on milk production, collection, processing, marketing and consumption in Africa. The researchers focus on the period surrounding the first wave of the outbreak (from February to June 2020), during which the number of cases surged and many steps were taken to curb the epidemic. The paper is based on reports from four countries covered by the Africa-Milk Research Project: Burkina Faso, Kenya, Madagascar and Senegal. Data was collected primarily from nine dairy processors located in those countries. Major conclusions of the study are: (1) Dairy farmers were negatively affected by COVID-19 measures when the health crisis coincided with the peak of the milk production season, and when governments did not take steps to support milk production. (2) Small and informal milk collectors were also affected by traffic restrictions as they could not obtain traffic permits. (3) Milk powder importation remained unaffected during the outbreak. (4) Dairy processors (particularly small ones) faced many challenges restricting their operation. Travel restrictions led to temporary interruptions of milk supply, and because of employee protection and safety measures, processing costs increased. (5) Many small retailers were affected by bans on public transport and reduced their purchases of artisanal dairy products;meanwhile, spoilage of dairy products increased during long curfews coupled with poor storage conditions. Supermarkets were able to increase their market share during the pandemic thanks to their connections with industrial dairy processors and wholesalers. (6) A majority of consumers decreased their consumption of dairy products due to a decrease of purchasing power. In some cases, an increase in consumption occurred (due to Ramadan month and dry season high temperatures) and consumption shifted towards long-life dairy products. (7) Overall, the consequences of the health crisis affected more small and informal dairy supply chains than the larger ones, which are more formal, better organised and finally more resilient to face this kind of global crisis.
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The present study examines the impact of COVID-19 on Maldivian tourism, highlighting the loss of tourists and tourism earnings for the period 2020Q1 to 2021Q2 and analyses the recovery rate of inbound tourists' arrivals post border re-opening (i.e., 2020Q3 - 2021Q2). Seasonal Autoregressive Integrated Moving Average (SARIMA) model was employed to generate monthly forecasts for 2020 and 2021. The results indicate an estimated loss of 1.9 million tourists between 2020Q1 and 2021Q2. A massive drop in tourist arrivals caused an estimated loss of USD 3.5 billion in tourism earnings by June 2021. Results further indicate that with an average monthly recovery rate of 3%, inbound arrivals have recovered 34% of forecasted levels and 40% of 2019 levels by June 2021. The measures implemented by the government of Maldives played a vital role in the recovery of inbound tourism. However, the rebound of tourists has not reached the desired levels except for the arrivals from Russia. Therefore, additional strategies must be implemented for the quick revival of the Maldivian tourism industry. This study expands and enriches tourism management knowledge in the face of a massive crisis highlighting important managerial and policy implications for reviving the tourism industry of the Maldives.
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BACKGROUND: The objectives of the study were to identify the psychological impacts of lockdown on medical students due to COVID-19 and to discover the educational perplexities being faced by these students during the lockdown. METHODS: A cross-sectional study was conducted at Sir Seewoosagur Ramgoolam Medical College (SSRMC), Mauritius. Questions were designed after an extensive review of the literature, so as to ensure relevance to meet the objectives of the study. RESULTS: Out of 700 undergraduate medical students, 663 participated, which equates to a response rate of 95%. 348 (52.5 %) of the students were stationed in their hometown and the remaining 315 (47.5 %) were stationed in Mauritius. 464(70%) of the students suffered from the psychological impacts of lockdown whereas 634(95.6%) of students suffered from the educational impact thereof. Mauritian students suffered a greater educational impact aOR4.236[1.606-11.173]. Psychological impacts aOR 1.280 [0.917-1.789] and educational impacts aOR 2.464 [1.076-5.647] were more prevalent in hometown-based students. Students pursuing their clinical studies had aOR1.219 [ 0.531-2.798] a greater educational impact as compared to preclinical studies. CONCLUSION: Lockdown triggered both educational and psychological impacts on medical students. On a psychological basis it was proven that the lockdown induced a feeling of guilt and had a greater psychological impact in pre-clinical students. The COVID-19 situation was simultaneously indicated to be a motivator in the majority of students; however, juxtaposed to this was the fact that various students felt as if they couldn't study at the same level that they were accustomed to due to the uncertainty of the situation.