A Cognitive Analysis of Covid-19 on the Africa Economy Using Linear Regression

The coronavirus outbreak in 2020 has made it difficult to implement macroeconomic initiatives and has affected the economy in all countries in Africa. There has been a lot of concern regarding how to stabilize the economy at least to where it was before the coronavirus outbreak. There was increased governmental allocation to combat the spread and reduce COVID-19's impacts. This study evaluates the economic impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic on some African countries and examines the cognitive analysis as it affects the economy considering layoffs and other revenue losses, as well as a consistent recession and deterioration in the banking and economic sectors. A linear regression method was used in the analysis of this work. Although the pandemic affects every aspect of life and society at large, this study examines how it affects the nation's economy. It was recognized that numerous policy instruments, including those connected to health and social protection, fiscal policy, and financial, industrial, and trade policies, needed to be implemented for the economy to recover properly from the financial loss. The analysis of the data, shows that there was a reduction in the GDP of each country during the Covid-19 pandemic. It is predicted that adopting these technologies may minimize suffering among people and aid in the economy's recovery from recession and bankruptcy. © 2022 IEEE.

Perception of healthcare workers towards the government's Coronavirus disease 2019 pandemic response in Ekiti State, Nigeria: A cross sectional study

Background: Globally, coronavirus 2019 pandemic has led to severe illnesses, loss of lives, and social disruption in Nigeria. Ekiti State government introduced different strategies, protocols, and standard operating procedures in the control of the pandemic. This study assessed the perception of primary healthcare workers (HCWs) to the measures introduced to combat the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic in Ekiti State, Nigeria. Methods: This study was a descriptive cross-sectional study conducted between August and September 2020 among primary HCWs in Ekiti State. A Google survey tool was used to create an online questionnaire which was administered to respondents on social media platform. Analysis was done using STATA SE 12. Descriptive and bivariate analysis were conducted with a level of significance set at P < 0.05. Results: The mean & PLUSMN;standard deviation age of the respondents was 44.2 & PLUSMN;6.7 years. Almost all (99.4%) of respondents had heard of COVID-19 pandemic while less than three-quarter (67.7%) had been trained on COVID-19. About half (54.6%) and (50.0%), respectively had good knowledge and perception of COVID-19, while three-quarter (75%) had good practice. About half (50.4%) had good perception about government's response toward COVID-19 prevention and protocols. Social and news media and family and friends were significantly associated with respondents' perception toward government' response (P = 0.000;0.006 and 0.011) respectively. Similarly, the level of perception and practice of respondents were found to be statistically significant with respondent's perception of government response to COVID-19 (P = 0.001 and 0.040) respectively. Conclusion: Only about half of the respondents had good knowledge of COVID-19 and positive perception toward government's response to COVID-19 pandemic. Intensification of government's efforts toward the pandemic control in Nigeria is recommended.

Efficacy of Hexetidine, Thymol and Hydrogen Peroxide-Containing Oral Antiseptics in Reducing Sars-Cov-2 Virus in the Oral Cavity: A Pilot Study.

BACKGROUND: Studies have demonstrated the role of sputum as a site of severe acute respiratory syndrome-coronavirus-2 (SARSCoV-2) transmission. However, there is limited literature on the virucidal efficacy of oral antiseptics against SARS-CoV-2 virus. This study investigated the virucidal efficacy of three oral-antiseptics compared to a placebo-control in the sputum of SARS-CoV-2 infected individuals. METHODOLOGY: A pilot study of adults with SARS-CoV-2 positive results, as determined by reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) of <7 days. The oral antiseptics investigated were: Hexetidine (0.1% w/v); Thymol (0.063% w/v) and H2O2(1.5%) compared to de-mineralized sterile water (Placebo-control). The primary outcome measure was the proportion of negative RT-PCR results at 15-mins, 30-mins, 1-hour, 2-hours and 4-hours After Oral antiseptics Interventions (AOI) compared to the placebo-control. Statistical analysis was done using STATA 15.0 software with p-values of <0.05 considered statistically significant. RESULTS: Data from a total of 66 participants that were RT-PCR SARS-CoV-2 positive at baseline (0-min) was analysed. At 15-mins AOI, the highest proportion of negativation from sputum samples was observed in the Hexedine group, with 69.2% of the baseline PCR positive cases converting to negative compared to 46.7% in the placebo-control group. In addition, H2O2 demonstrated efficacy at 2-hours AOI compared to placebo-control (62.5% vs 37.5% respectively) and other oral-antiseptics. Across all time-points, the oral-antiseptic groups compared to the placebo-control group, there was no statistically significant difference in the proportion of sputum samples which converted to a negative status (p>0.05). CONCLUSION: The findings in this study suggest there was no significant difference in the proportion of participants who converted to a negative sputum status across the treatment groups at various time points. Future studies could compare the cycle threshold (ct) viral titre values of sputum samples to determine quantitative differences.

CONTEXTE: Des études ont démontré le rôle des expectorations comme un site de transmission du syndrome respiratoire aigu sévère-coronavirus- 2 (SRAS-CoV-2). Cependant, il existe peu de documentation sur l'efficacité virucide des antiseptiques oraux contre le virus du SRASCoV-2. Cette étude a examiné l'efficacité virucide de trois antiseptiques oraux par rapport à un contrôle placebo dans les expectorations de personnes infectées par le SRAS-CoV-2. MÉTHODOLOGIE: Une étude pilote menée auprès d'adultes dont les résultats sont positifs pour le SRAS-CoV-2, tels que déterminés par la réaction en chaîne de la polymérase par transcription inverse (RT-PCR) pendant 7 jours. Les antiseptiques oraux étudiés étaient : Hexetidine (0,1% p/v) ; Thymol (0,063% p/v) et H2O2 (1,5%) par rapport à l'eau stérile déminéralisée (Placebo-contrôle). Le principal critère d'évaluation était la proportion de résultats RT-PCR négatifs 15 minutes, 30 minutes, 1 heure, 2 heures et 4 heures après les interventions antiseptiques orales (AOI) par rapport au contrôle placebo. L'analyse statistique a été réalisée à l'aide du logiciel STATA 15.0, les valeurs p de <0,05 étant considérées comme statistiquement significatives. RÉSULTATS: Les données d'un total de 66 participants qui étaient positifs à la RT-PCR SARS-CoV-2 au départ (0 minute) ont été analysées. Au bout de 15 minutes, la plus forte proportion de négativation des échantillons d'expectoration a été observée dans le groupe Hexedine, 69,2 % des cas positifs au départ par PCR devenant négatifs, contre 46,7 % dans le groupe témoin placebo. En outre, l'H2O2 a démontré son efficacité à 2 heures après l'apparition de la maladie par rapport au groupe placebo (62,5 % contre 37,5 % respectivement) et aux autres antiseptiques oraux. Pour tous les points temporels, les groupes d'antiseptiques oraux comparés au groupe placebo n'ont pas présenté de différence statistiquement significative dans la proportion d'échantillons d'expectoration qui sont devenus négatifs (p>0,05). CONCLUSION: Les résultats de cette étude suggèrent qu'il n'y a pas de différence significative dans la proportion de participants qui sont passés à un statut négatif d'expectoration dans les groupes de traitement à différents moments. Les études futures pourraient comparer les valeurs du titre viral au seuil de cycle (ct) des échantillons d'expectoration afin de déterminer les différences quantitatives. MOTS CLÉS: SRAS-CoV-2, antiseptiques oraux, hexétidine, peroxyde d'hydrogène.

A multi-centre, randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled clinical trial of the efficacy and safety of chloroquine phosphate, hydroxychloroquine sulphate and lopinavir/ritonavir for the treatment of COVID-19 in Lagos State: study protocol for a randomized controlled trial.

BACKGROUND: The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is caused by the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) that was first identified in Wuhan, Hubei, China, in December 2019. It was recognized as a pandemic by the World Health Organization on 11 March 2020. Outbreak forecasting and mathematical modelling suggest that these numbers will continue to rise. Early identification of effective remedies that can shorten the duration and severity of illness is critical for Lagos State, which is the epi-centre of the disease in Nigeria. METHODS: This is a multi-centre, randomized, double-blind placebo-controlled superiority trial. The study investigates the efficacy of chloroquine phosphate, hydroxychloroquine sulphate and lopinavir/ritonavir added on to standard of care compared to standard of care only in patients with COVID-19 disease. The primary outcome is the clinical status of patients measured using a 7-point ordinal scale at day 15. Research participants and clinicians will be blinded to the allocated intervention. Outcome measures will be directly assessed by clinicians. Statistical analysis will be done by a team blinded to the identity and allocation of research participants. Data analysis will follow intention-to-treat methods, using R software. DISCUSSION: The current study is of strategic importance for Lagos State in potentially curbing the health, social and economic burden of COVID-19 disease. Should the current study demonstrate that either of the three intervention drugs is more efficacious than standard therapy alone, the State Ministry of Health will develop an evidence-based guideline for the management of COVID-19 in Lagos State. The findings will also be shared nationally and with other states which may lead to a standardized national guideline for the treatment of COVID-19 in Nigeria. TRIAL REGISTRATION: Pan African Clinical Trials Register PACTR202004801273802 . Registered prospectively on April 2, 2020.

Modeling Covid-19 Cases in West African Countries: A Comparative Analysis of Quartic Curve Estimation Models and Estimators

COVID-19 has remained and continued to be a severe pandemic threatening the present and future health stability of all the countries, the West African Countries inclusive. The challenge to avert the threat by modeling the reported cases in each of these West African Countries becomes needful for future planning and a concern in this book chapter. Consequently, COVID-19 data on daily confirmed and death cases in each of the sixteen (16) countries in West Africa were collected from European Centre for disease prevention and control (www.ecdc.europa.eu ) beginning from the first day of its occurrence until 25th September 2020. As at this time, West African counties had recorded 181,376 confirmed cases and 2748 death cases. It is intended to determine and use an appropriate curve estimation statistical model to forecast for the remaining days of the year 2020;and establish the direction of movement of the future forecast values for effective planning. The Quartic Curve Estimation Model with autocorrelated error terms of order 1 (AR (1)) was found useful with some estimators. The best estimator of the model parameters was identified to be either the Cochrane Orcutt or the Hildreth-LU or the Prais-Winsten estimator. There is an upward movement of forecast values of COVID-19 cumulative confirmed cases towards the end of the year 2020 in Burkina Faso, Cape Verde, Code d'Ivoire, Liberia, Mali, Mauritania, Nigeria, Senegal and Sierra Leone. So, the government in these countries needs not to relax in their fight against the spread of COVI-19. Similarly, there is an upward movement of forecast values of COVID-19 cumulative death cases in Benin, Cape Verde, Guinea Bissau, Mali, Mauritania, Nigeria and Togo. So, these countries would need to critically look after their COVID-19 confirmed patients so as not to lose them to death. COVID-19 cases in Gambia, Ghana, Guinea and Niger are expected to flatten out towards the year while they have to be approached with all seriousness in Cape Verde, Mali, Mauritania and Nigeria. © 2022, The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG.

The CoronaSurveys System for COVID-19 Incidence Data Collection and Processing

CoronaSurveys is an ongoing interdisciplinary project developing a system to infer the incidence of COVID-19 around the world using anonymous open surveys. The surveys have been translated into 60 languages and are continuously collecting participant responses from any country in the world. The responses collected are pre-processed, organized, and stored in a version-controlled repository, which is publicly available to the scientific community. In addition, the CoronaSurveys team has devised several estimates computed on the basis of survey responses and other data, and makes them available on the project's website in the form of tables, as well as interactive plots and maps. In this paper, we describe the computational system developed for the CoronaSurveys project. The system includes multiple components and processes, including the web survey, the mobile apps, the cleaning and aggregation process of the survey responses, the process of storage and publication of the data, the processing of the data and the computation of estimates, and the visualization of the results. In this paper we describe the system architecture and the major challenges we faced in designing and deploying it.

Novel coronavirus (sars-cov-2) main protease: Molecular docking of puerarin as a potential inhibitor

SARS-CoV-2 is a single-stranded RNA virus that triggered the global pandemic Coronavirus Disease-2019 (COVID-2019). It has infected about 10,021,401 patients and brought forth mortality rate to about 499,913 among 216 countries as cited by WHO. Drugs including Chloroquine and Hydroxychloroquine derivatives are being administered in most urgent cases, although probable side effects on people with metabolic disorders. Thus, the unavailability of authorized drugs and treatment for this pandemic demands the research world to discover natural compounds with potency to cure it. This paper assesses the isoflavonoid puerarin from Pueraria lobata as a possible inhibitor of the main protease of SARS-COV-2 (Mpro) via in silico approach, for example, molecular docking, Lipinski's rule of five and toxicity prediction (ADME). Puerarin revealed a high binding affinity with the target site of SARS-CoV-2 main protease. This compound slightly meets the criteria of Lipinski's rule. It does not possess properties that could cause adverse effects in humans;thus, making puerarin a potential drug candidate to investigate its usage against COVID-19. © 2021 Malaysian Society for Biochemistry and Molecular Biology. All rights reserved.