House prices and COVID-19 pandemic shocks in India: a nonlinear ARDL analysis

PurposeIndia is one of those countries that are severely affected by the COVID-19 pandemic. With the upsurge in the cases, the country recorded high unemployment rates, economic uncertainties and slugging growth rates. This adversely affected the real estate sector in India. As the relation of the housing market with the gross domestic product is quite lasting thus, the decline in housing prices has severely impacted the economic growth of the nation. Hence, the purpose of this paper is to gauge the asymmetric impact of COVID-19 shocks on housing prices in India.Design/methodology/approachStudies revealed the symmetric impact of macroeconomic variables, and contingencies on housing prices dominate the literature. However, the assumption of linearity fails to apprehend the asymmetric dynamics of the housing sector. Thus, the author uses a nonlinear autoregressive distributed lag model to address this limitation and test the existence of short- and long-run asymmetry.FindingsThe findings revealed the long- and short-run asymmetric impact of the COVID-19 outbreak and the peak of the COVID-19 on housing prices. The results indicate that the peak of COVID-19 had a greater impact on housing prices in comparison to the outbreak of COVID-19. This can be explained as prices will revert to normal at a speed of 0.978% with the decline in the number of COVID-19 cases. Whereas the housing prices rise at a rate of 0.714 as a result of government intervention to deal with the ill effects of the COVID-19 outbreak. Moreover, it can be inferred that both the outbreak and peak of COVID-19 will lead to a minimal decline in housing prices, while with the decline in the number of cases and reduction in the impact of the outbreak of COVID, the housing prices will rise at an increasing rate.Originality/valueTo the best of the authors' knowledge, this is the first study to understand the impact of the outbreak and peak of COVID-19 on the housing prices separately.

TOURIST BEHAVIOR AND MOTIVATIONAL FACTORS DURING COVID-19 OUTBREAK IN THAILAND

Since COVID-19 has been spread out in December 2019, it has impacted the world's economy significantly. As of other countries, there are several businesses in Thailand were directly affected by the outbreak of COVID-19 especially in tourism industry which is one of the major revenues in previous years. The new ways to live with COVID-19 such as social distancing, hand washing, or mask wearing have been promoted by the government ever since. Moreover, a few campaigns have been launched to support people in this difficult time including "We Travel Together " which is mainly focused on tourism. However, some questions also arise whether this campaign is sufficed for boosting the tourism industry, what are the tourist behavior, opinion, and motivation factors during this time because no one knows how long the situation will resume to normal and when COVID-19 will be last. The findings show that during COVID-19 situation, respondents mostly travelled to Central region of Thailand with rate of frequency of 1-4 times, the majority of respondents chose sightseeing (63.7%) over other types of tourism, and respondents mostly were motivated by Relax/Escape (Mean = 4.12) which is one of the 13 motivational factors from Travel Career Pattern model (Pearce & Lee, 2005). This refers to tourism during COVID-19 situation is still needed as long as tourism is available and the motivation can be met.

Impacts of COVID-19 outbreaks on the lower-income groups and attainments of SDGs: a study of the fast-growing commercial capital city, Chittagong, Bangladesh

Purpose>The emergence of COVID-19 and its spread led to severe social, economic and livelihood impacts around the world. This study documented the socioeconomic impacts of COVID-19 outbreaks and lockdown on the lower-income groups. Also illustrated the impacts on the attainment of SDGs in the context of the slums of Chittagong City.Design/methodology/approach>Both qualitative and quantitative data have been collected from the 150 respondents through questionnaire surveys in the slums.Findings>The lockdown led to the decrease of 90% of the respondents' income level and affected the livelihoods of 97.33% of the respondents, with an overall score of 3.22 ± 0.67 on a four-point Likert-type scale. About 96.67% of respondents' psychological conditions have been affected high to extreme, with an overall score of 3.19 ± 0.68. The pandemic affected 74.67% of respondents' food habits, 95.33% of respondents' child education, increased domestic violence and deteriorated social security, basic service facilities and hygiene practices among the slum dwellers. The severity of COVID-19 outbreaks on the lower-income people makes it critical for the government to attain the SDG 1, SDG 2, SDG 3, SDG 4, SDG 5 (Target 5.1, 5.2) SDG 6 and SDG 16.Originality/value>The findings of the study will help governments, policymakers, international organizations to adopt measures to mitigate the effects of the outbreaks.

Models for MAGDM with dual hesitant q-rung orthopair fuzzy 2-tuple linguistic MSM operators and their application to COVID-19 pandemic.

In this article, we introduce dual hesitant q -rung orthopair fuzzy 2-tuple linguistic set (DHq-ROFTLS), a new strategy for dealing with uncertainty that incorporates a 2-tuple linguistic term into dual hesitant q -rung orthopair fuzzy set (DHq-ROFS). DHq-ROFTLS is a better way to deal with uncertain and imprecise information in the decision-making environment. We elaborate the operational rules, based on which, the DHq-ROFTL weighted averaging (DHq-ROFTLWA) operator and the DHq-ROFTL weighted geometric (DHq-ROFTLWG) operator are presented to fuse the DHq-ROFTL numbers (DHq-ROFTLNs). As Maclaurin symmetric mean (MSM) aggregation operator is a useful tool to model the interrelationship between multi-input arguments, we generalize the traditional MSM to aggregate DHq-ROFTL information. Firstly, the DHq-ROFTL Maclaurin symmetric mean (DHq-ROFTLMSM) and the DHq-ROFTL weighted Maclaurin symmetric mean (DHq-ROFTLWMSM) operators are proposed along with some of their desirable properties and some special cases. Further, the DHq-ROFTL dual Maclaurin symmetric mean (DHq-ROFTLDMSM) and weighted dual Maclaurin symmetric mean (DHq-ROFTLWDMSM) operators with some properties and cases are presented. Moreover, the assessment and prioritizing of the most important aspects in multiple attribute group decision-making (MAGDM) problems is analysed by an extended novel approach based on the proposed aggregation operators under DHq-ROFTL framework. At long last, a numerical model is provided for the selection of adequate medication to control COVID-19 outbreaks to demonstrate the use of the generated technique and exhibit its adequacy. Finally, to analyse the advantages of the proposed method, a comparison analysis is conducted and the superiorities are illustrated.

Experience of a mid-term care facility in the COVID-19 with visit

Background: The Hospital Virgen de la Poveda, (Villa del Prado, Spain), assists patients in need of Continuous medical care, Rehabilitation or Palliative care;these patients have many risk-factors of COVID-19 morbility and mortality. With both health-care humanization and contagion-prevention purpo-ses, in July 2020 two patient visit protocols were im-plemented. The objective of this study is to describe these measures qualitatively and quantitatively. Methods: A context is provided regarding COVID-19 measures in this institution. The content and follow-up indicators of visit protocols (number of visits, of outbreaks, inpatients, etc.) and of their con-text were provided. The empirical outbreak probabi-lities were calculated, and hypothesis contrast was performed against no-visits (0%) and no visit-control (7-day cumulative incidence/habitant). Results: Two protocols were created. Accompanying was applied to Palliative Care cases (no appointments required, no time limits), and a short visits protocol was applied to the other patients (appointments for 1 weekly visit for 1-2 persons were given and visits last up to 45 minutes). In both protocols, visitors with symptoms or fever or particularly susceptible were for-bidden entrance. Between July and April 2021, 4,759 short-visit appointments were given and 7,544 total vi-sits took place (short visits, accompanying, exceptions). An outbreak was possibly attributed to short visits (pro-bability=0.021% [CI95%: 0.0005-0.1171%]) and two outbreaks were possibly attributed to visits globally (probability=0.0265% [IC95%: 0.0032-0.0958%]). Conclusions: Elaborating adapted, applica-ble and prospectively-evaluated protocols with pre-vention measures at multiple levels might succeed in minimizing the risk of adverse events (in this case, COVID-19

Infection prevention strategies are highly protective in COVID-19 units while main risks to healthcare professionals come from coworkers and the community.

BACKGROUND: Early evaluations of healthcare professional (HCP) COVID-19 risk occurred during insufficient personal protective equipment and disproportionate testing, contributing to perceptions of high patient-care related HCP risk. We evaluated HCP COVID-19 seropositivity after accounting for community factors and coworker outbreaks. METHODS: Prior to universal masking, we conducted a single-center retrospective cohort plus cross-sectional study. All HCP (1) seen by Occupational Health for COVID-like symptoms (regardless of test result) or assigned to (2) dedicated COVID-19 units, (3) units with a COVID-19 HCP outbreak, or (4) control units from 01/01/2020 to 04/15/2020 were offered serologic testing by an FDA-authorized assay plus a research assay against 67 respiratory viruses, including 11 SARS-CoV-2 antigens. Multivariable models assessed the association of demographics, job role, comorbidities, care of a COVID-19 patient, and geocoded socioeconomic status with positive serology. RESULTS: Of 654 participants, 87 (13.3%) were seropositive; among these 60.8% (N = 52) had never cared for a COVID-19 patient. Being male (OR 1.79, CI 1.05-3.04, p = 0.03), working in a unit with a HCP-outbreak unit (OR 2.21, CI 1.28-3.81, p < 0.01), living in a community with low owner-occupied housing (OR = 1.63, CI = 1.00-2.64, p = 0.05), and ethnically Latino (OR 2.10, CI 1.12-3.96, p = 0.02) were positively-associated with COVID-19 seropositivity, while working in dedicated COVID-19 units was negatively-associated (OR 0.53, CI = 0.30-0.94, p = 0.03). The research assay identified 25 additional seropositive individuals (78 [12%] vs. 53 [8%], p < 0.01). CONCLUSIONS: Prior to universal masking, HCP COVID-19 risk was dominated by workplace and community exposures while working in a dedicated COVID-19 unit was protective, suggesting that infection prevention protocols prevent patient-to-HCP transmission. Prior to universal masking, HCP COVID-19 risk was dominated by workplace and community exposures while working in a dedicated COVID-19 unit was protective, suggesting that infection prevention protocols prevent patient-to-HCP transmission.

COVID-19 in aged care homes: a comparison of effects initial government policies had in the UK (primarily focussing on England) and Australia during the first wave.

BACKGROUND: COVID-19 pandemic has had a major impact globally, with older people living in aged care homes suffering high death rates. OBJECTIVES: We aimed to compare the impact of initial government policies on this vulnerable older population between the UK and Australia during the first wave of attack. METHODS: We searched websites of governments in the UK and Australia and media outlets. We examined the key policies including the national lockdown dates and the distribution of some important resources (personal protective equipment and testing) and the effects of these initial policies on the mortality rates in the aged care homes during the first wave of attack of COVID-19. RESULTS: We found that both countries had prioritized resources to hospitals over aged care homes during the first wave of attack. Both countries had lower priority for aged care residents in hospitals (e.g. discharging without testing for COVID-19 or discouraging admissions). However, deaths in aged care homes were 270 times higher in the UK than in Australia as on 7 May 2020 (despite UK having a population only 2.5 times larger than Australia). The lower fatality rate in Australia may have been due to the earlier lockdown strategy when the total daily cases were low in Australia (118) compared to the UK (over 1000), as well as the better community viral testing regime in Australia. CONCLUSION: In conclusion, the public health policy in Australia aimed towards earlier intervention with earlier national lockdown and more viral testing to prevent new cases. This primary prevention could have resulted in more lives being saved. In contrast, the initial policy in the UK focussed mainly on protecting resources for hospitals, and there was a delay in national lockdown intervention and lower viral testing rate, resulting in more lives lost in the aged care sector.

Bibliometric Analysis on COVID-19: A Comparison of Research Between English and Chinese Studies.

Background: As an emerging infectious disease, COVID-19 has garnered great research interest. We aimed to explore the differences between English language and Chinese language Medical/Scientific journals publications, particularly aiming to explore the efficacy/contents of the literature published in English and Chinese in relation to the outcomes of management and characterization of COVID-19 during the early stage of COVID-19 pandemic. Methods: Publications on COVID-19 research were retrieved from both English and Chinese databases. Bibliometric analyses were performed using VOSviewer 1.6.14, and CiteSpace V software. Network maps were generated to evaluate the collaborations between different authors, countries/provinces, and institutions. Results: A total of 143 English and 721 Chinese original research articles and reviews on COVID-19 were included in our study. Most of the authors and institutions of the papers were from China before March 1st, 2020, however, the distribution of authors and institutions were mainly in developed countries or more wealthy areas of China. The range of the keywords in English publications was more extensive than those in Chinese. Traditional Chinese Medicine was seen more frequently in Chinese papers than in English. Of the 143 articles published in English, 54 articles were published by Chinese authors only and 21 articles were published jointly by Chinese and other overseas authors. Conclusions: The publications in English have enabled medical practitioners and scientists to share/exchange information, while on the other hand, the publications in the Chinese language have provided complementary educational approaches for the local medical practitioners to understand the essential and key information to manage COVID-19 in the relatively remote regions of China, for the general population with a general level of education.

2020PMD, 30-years of Translational Mobility Medicine at the time of COVID-19 outbreak: Last-minute forewords from the editor.

In the autumn of 2019, the organizers of the 2020 Padua Muscle Days planned an intense program, which was to be held from March 18 to March 21, 2020. The program included eight Scientific Sessions to occur over three full days at either Padova University or the Hotel Augustus on Euganei Hills (Padova), Italy. Abruptly, however, in early January the Coronavirus COVID-19 outbreak started in China and changed the world perspectives and expectations. In Italy, it started in Lombardy and Veneto, two main industrial areas of the country with intense connections and interchanges of people and commercial activities with China. Indeed, the virus was first isolated from a couple of Chinese tourists, who inadvertently incubated the infection during their visit to many towns in Italy. Within the following two weeks, the epidemic had the first Italian cases and victims in an area south of Milan and in a Village of the Euganei Hills (Vo Euganeo, Padova). The village was immediately quarantined, but it was too late. The virus had escaped the area. Thus, it was a mandatory, though difficult decision (made even before the Italian National Government posted rules to be followed to decrease spread of the infection), to post-pone the Padua Muscle Days meeting from 18-21 March, 2020 to 25-28 November, 2020. Luckily, the vast majority of organizers, chairs, speakers, and attendees accepted the decision and have assured their presence in late November, despite the coincidence with the Thanksgiving holiday in the US. Currently, the only changes in the program are the new dates; however, it is difficult to forecast the future. Anyhow, the rationale of the decision to post-pone 2020PMD was reinforced by the actions of many organizers of international events. One of the most recent examples is the March 6, 2020 decision of the leaders of the Experimental Biology Host Societies to cancel Experimental Biology (EB) 2020, set to take place April 4-7 in San Diego, California, USA. All these active civil responses to world dangers are mandatory to avoid those military responses that are easy to start, but provide the worst results. How do we not lose half of the 2020 year? The option is to try to achieve some of the goals of the meeting by long-distance communications. Thus, the Collection of Abstracts will be, as originally planned, e-published in this 30(1) 2020 Issue of the European Journal of Translational Myology (EJTM) together with the many EJTM Communications submitted by speakers and attendees of the 2020PMD. We may also start the process that will implement EMMA, the European Mobility Medicine Association, by circulating a proposal and inviting comments.