Impact of COVID-19 Lockdowns on Rates of Adolescent Pregnancies: A Systematic Review (preprint)

Background: Education is known to protect adolescent girls from unplanned pregnancy. School closures were component of COVID-19 “lockdown measures”. The impact of these measures on adolescent pregnancy worldwideis unknown.  Methods: We performed a systematic review to find evidence of the impact of “lockdowns” and school closures on adolescent pregnancy events during the COVID-19 pandemic. Databases including Pubmed, EMBASE, CINAHL, WHO Index Medicus, and Literatura Latinoamericana y Caribe en Ciencias de la Salud (LILACS) were searched. Studies that provided data on pregnancy rates in girls aged 10-19 before, during, and after the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic (defined as March 2020) were eligible for inclusion. Extracted data included study design, study location, age of participants, exposure period, and percentage or pregnancy rate data. Findings: On August 21st, 2023, 3049 studies were screened, with 79 eligible for full-text review. Ten studies were included in the final review: Seven performed in Africa (Uganda, Kenya, South Africa, and Ethiopia), and three in the Americas (USA and Brazil). Adolescent pregnancy increased in six out of the seven African studies while a decrease or no change was noted in USA and Brazil.All studies were at a high risk of bias. Interpretation:   Adolescent pregnancy rates during the COVID-19 pandemic may have substantially increased in sub-Saharan Africa. Data scarcity and low-quality evidence are significant limitations. The dynamic relationship between lockdown measures and adolescent pregnancies warrants ongoing multifaceted research and adaptive policies to safeguard adolescent sexual and reproductive health during health crisis. Systematic Review Registration: PROSPERO registration number CRD42022308354.

Using space-time scan statistic for studying the effects of COVID-19 in Punjab, Pakistan: a guideline for policy measures in regional agriculture.

Pakistan is included in top 50 countries which are estimated to face serious agriculture and food deficiency related challenges due to the worldwide pandemic coronavirus 2019 (COVID-19). The aim of this study was to evaluate the effects of COVID-19 on food supply chain and agriculture in Punjab, Pakistan, by using space-time scan statistic (STSS). A survey was conducted at 720 points in different districts of the province. The STSS detected "active" and emerging clusters that are current at the end of our study area-particularly, 17 clusters were formed while adding the updated case data. Software ArcGIS 10.3 was used to find relative risk (RR) values; the maximum RR value was found to be 42.19 and maximum observed cases 53,265 during June 15-July 1, 2020. It was not always necessary that if the number of active cases in Punjab increased, there should be higher relative risk for more number of districts and vice versa. Due to the highest number of cases of COVID-19 and RR values during July, mostly farmers faced many difficulties during the cultivation of cotton and rice. Mostly farmers (72%) observed increase in prices of inputs (fertilizers and pesticides) during lockdown. If the supply chain of agriculture related inputs is disturbed, farmers may find it quite difficult to access markets, which could result in a decline in production and sales of crops and livestock in study area. It is suggested that to protect the food security and to decrease the effect of the lockdown, Punjab government needs to review food policy and analyse how market forces will respond to the imbalanced storage facilities and capacity, supply and demand and price control of products. The findings of this study can also help policy-makers to formulate an effective food security and agriculture adaptation strategy.

Do green supply chain management practices improve organizational resilience during the COVID-19 crisis? A survival analysis of global firms.

This study investigates whether green supply chain management (GSCM) practices help companies to be resilient against the buffer effect in the context of COVID-19. Building on the instrumental version of stakeholder theory, companies implementing GSCM practices should build environmental skills and competitive advantage to cope with a crisis caused by supply chain disruptions. Our survival analysis, conducted on 5,696 firms headquartered in 35 countries, shows clear evidence that GSCM companies' market prices recover quickly from the shock. Considering mounting pressure on environmental issues, this study documents the new benefits of GSCM for companies confronted with a global financial shock. By applying a large sample, the study has originality and implications for stakeholders, including investors, governments, and policymakers, to push firms to become more eco-friendly and resilient.

Study the Effects of COVID-19 in Punjab, Pakistan using Space-time Scan Statistic for Policy Measures in Regional Agriculture and Food Supply Chain (preprint)

Food service and retailing sectors play a vital role in economics of Punjab, Pakistan. Pakistan is included in top 50 countries which are estimated to face serious agriculture and food deficiency related challenges due to the world-wide pandemic coronavirus 2019 (COVID-19). The aim of this study was to study the effects of COVID-19 on food security and agriculture in Punjab, Pakistan using space-time scan statistic (STSS). A survey was conducted at 720 points in different districts of the province. The STSS detected “active” and emerging clusters that are current at the end of our study aera – particularly 17 clusters were formed while adding the updated case data. ArcGIS 10.3 software was used to find relative risk (RR) values; the maximum RR value was found to be 42.19 and maximum observed cases 53265 during June 15th – July 1st. Due to the highest number of cases of COVID-19 and RR vales during July, mostly farmers faced many difficulties during the cultivation of cotton and rice. Mostly farmers (72%) observed increase in prices of inputs (fertilizers and pesticides) during lockdown. The timely results (attained through STSS and RR) can inform decision makers and public health officials about where to improve the allocation of resources (including those for farming community), also, where to apply stricter quarantines and travel bans. If the supply chain of agriculture related inputs is disturbed, farmers may find it quite difficult to access markets, which could result in a decline in production and sales of crops and livestock in study area. It is suggested that to protection of food security and to decrease the effect of the lockdown, Punjab government needs to review food policy as well as analyze how market forces will respond to the imbalanced storage facilities and capacity, supply and demand, and price control of products. The findings of this study can also help policy-makers to formulate an effective food security and agriculture adaptation strategy.

An in silico approach to target SARS-CoV-2 RNA dependent RNA polymerase of COVID-19 with naturally occurring phytochemicals (preprint)

The novel coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) was firstly reported from Wuhan city of China found as highly contagious, transmittable and pathogenic viral infection. The World Health Organization declared COVID-19 as a pandemic since its emergence from China. The RNA dependent RNA polymerase (nsp-12) is a complex with nsp-7 and nsp-8 cofactors major constituent of viral replication and RNA synthesis machinery. In current study, the RdRp of virus was selected as a receptor protein for computational drug discovery. Computational homology modelling was done in order to find the hidden secondary structures and structural assessment of viral protein to target them via antiviral drugs. The study based on docking of different phytochemicals to check potential of different plant metabolites against viral replicative proteins. Out of 200 ligands used in this study from different plants the best ten were selected based on drug discovery parameters such as S-score, ligand interactions, hydrophobic interactions and drug likeness. The ten best selected ligands were Verbenalin, Epigallocatechin, Swertisin, Nobiletin, Pinoresinol, Caftaric acid, Hesperetin, Islandicin, Neochlorogenic acid and Sesamin that exploit the potency as antagonist of viral protein. Among binding interactions of all ligands Arg339 centred as the main interacting residue among almost all the ligands. Till now many antiviral agents have shown potency in only mild cases of SARS-CoV-2 but no effective drug has been found for critical pulmonary cases. In clinical trials many broad-spectrum antiviral agents have been still in trail periods of testing against SARS-CoV-2. Till date no effective drug or vaccine has been validated with significant efficacy and potency against the SARS-CoV-2 therefore there is an urgent need to design effective vaccine against nCoV-19 infections.