Beginning Of COVID-19 Pandemic Research Articles

Patterns of antibiotic prescription in implant dentistry and antibiotic resistance awareness among European dentists: A questionnaire-based study.

Antimicrobial resistance is an alarming global public health concern, threatening the effective treatment of common infections. This phenomenon is driven by the improper prescription of antibiotics. This study aimed to elucidate the patterns of antibiotic prescription in implant dentistry among European dentists and their awareness of antibiotic resistance. An anonymous online validated questionnaire was distributed via e-mail to 6431 recipients through the European Association for Osseointegration. It comprised of 17 structured questions investigating demographic variables, working environment, clinical experience, attitude towards antibiotic prescription in particular in relation to implant dentistry and COVID-19 pandemic, and awareness of antibiotic resistance. Data were collected from April to May 2023. 281 dentists from 33 European countries completed the survey. Almost 80% affirmed to routinely prescribe antibiotics as prophylaxis as well as after dental implant placement, especially in medically compromised patients or in cases of bone grafting. Amoxicillin, alone (61%) or in combination with clavulanic acid (56%), was the most common antibiotic of choice. Awareness of penicillin resistance among respondents was high. For peri-implantitis treatment, more than half reported the use of systemic antibiotics. The large majority (95%) did not prescribe more antibiotics since the beginning of COVID-19 pandemic. Less than 40% declared to follow national guidelines for antibiotic prescription. This survey revealed a high prescription rate of antibiotics in implant dentistry, despite the awareness about antibiotic resistance among the respondents. The development and adherence to European guidelines has been identified as a potential strategy for improving antimicrobial stewardship.

The Strategies of Persuasion in Political Discourse: A Comparative Analysis of the Political Speeches of Arab and Non-Arab Leaders During Covid-19 Pandemic

This paper investigated the persuasive methods in Arabic and non-Arabic political speeches during the beginning of Covid-19 pandemic, as well as the similarities and differences between Arab and non-Arab leaders in using persuasive strategies. Data of the study consisted of the political speeches which were concerned with the Covid-19 situation in six different countries of the world, released between March and August 2020. The data analysis examines persuasive methods in political speeches and analyze them using Aristotle's triangle (Rhetorical Triangle). The analysis revealed that persuasive strategies based on Aristotle’s theory (400 B.C) were applied in the six leaders’ political speeches during the beginning of Covid-19 pandemic. Moreover, the results indicated that the most frequently persuasive strategies used by the Arab leaders are pathos and ethos strategies. Of the three strategies, it could be observed that logos and ethos strategies were the most employed by non-Arab in their speeches.

Measuring digital transformation stress at the workplace-Development and validation of the digital transformation stress scale.

Despite the unquestionable advantages of digital transformation (DT) in organizations, the very process of DT could have an impact on the level of stress of the employees. The negative effects of the digital transformation process can be observed during the implementation of information and communication technologies (ICT) solutions. They are further enhanced by the effects of COVID-19 pandemic, as digital transformation has accelerated to allow for remote work. Herein we distinguish between general stress at the workplace and the very specific type of stress, namely digital transformation stress (DTS). We assumed that this type of stress appears when rapid implementation of ICT solutions is introduced with time pressure and incertitude of further results. To quantify this phenomenon, we developed a new self-report scale-the Digital Transformation Stress Scale (DTSS), measuring employees' stress stemming from the process of digital transformation in organizations. The psychometric validity of the scale was evaluated in two studies: Study1 conducted at the beginning of COVID-19 pandemic in 2020 (N = 229) and Study 2 in 2021 (N = 558), after a year of mostly remote work. The results confirmed good reliability with Cronbach's Alpha α = .91 in Study 1 and α = .90 in Study 2 and assumed unidimensional factorial validity of the scale in both studies. All items of the scale had good difficulty and discrimination values evaluated in Item Response Theory, i.e., IRT approach. The scale showed predicted convergent validity as the indicator of the digital transformation stress moderately correlated with general stress at work. Moreover, the assumption that even employees with high ICT skills could be affected by DTS was confirmed. Additionally, the results indicated that digital transformation stress was significantly higher among employees who reported both issues: ongoing digital solutions projects at the workplace and high impact of COVID-19 pandemic on their work. The scale could be used in future work on measuring and counteracting digital transformation stress at the workplace.

A retrospective study of life skills promotes healthy Internet use among adolescents

ABSTRACT Background: Since the beginning of COVID-19 pandemic, studies highlight the augmentation in the use of Internet and smartphone, especially among the adolescents. However, little is known about the effect of technology addiction on adolescent mental health following reopening of the schools. Aim: The study aims to assess the level of technology addiction, life skills, and mental health impact among adolescents during the COVID-19 pandemic in India Materials and Methods: A cross-sectional research was conducted from July 2021 to October 2022. A nonprobability convenience sampling was used to collect the data from 352 adolescents using an Internet addiction test, smartphone addiction scale, life skills scale, and patient health questionnaire. Results: More than half of the adolescents were moderately addicted to the Internet and Smartphone. Three-fourth of the adolescents had mild-to-moderate depression. Those with moderate life skills were found to be moderately addicted to the Internet and Smartphone. Religion was found to be associated with Internet addiction. Age, religion, and parental monthly income were significantly associated with smartphone addiction among adolescents. Furthermore, class and life skills were significantly associated with depression among adolescents. Conclusion: Early-life skills training can help to prevent dysfunctional Internet use and mental and psychological problems among adolescents in schools and colleges.

Barriers and facilitators of receiving prosthetic services in people with lower limb amputation during Covid-19 pandemic: A qualitative study in a developing country.

This study investigated the barriers, challenges, and facilitators in receiving prosthetic services in people with lower limb amputation during Covid-19 pandemic. In this qualitative study, we conducted in-depth semistructured face-to-face interviews with individuals with lower limb amputation who needed prosthetic services during Covid-19 pandemic. We discussed about challenges and barriers that the participants had encountered during this period. The collected data were analyzed using a conceptual framework. Six broad themes of availability, accessibility, acceptability, affordability, accommodation, and awareness emerged from the analysis. Staff shortage, lack of remote services, accommodation, insurance and governmental support, and cost of services were the main concerns. Moreover, long waiting lists, postponed referrals, noncompliance with Covid-19 protocols and preventive measures, and lockdowns were the other important concerns that were noted. In addition, unsatisfactory services in hometown, distance to capital, transportation permit in lockdowns, traffic jam, and public transport problems were other reasons of service not being accessible. The positive aspects were the facilitators such as having home visits, social work and charity, and using private drive services. It seems that after the beginning of Covid-19 pandemic, people with lower limb amputation have faced more drastic challenges in accessing and receiving prosthetic services than in the prepandemic situations.

AN INTER-ORGANIZATIONAL RELATION PERSPECTIVE OF INDUSTRIAL SERVICE QUALITY ON THE WILLINGNESS TO RECOMMEND

W Bali – Seminyak is one of the luxurious 5-star hotel brands under Marriott International with its own style of wedding with the brand’s signature style, sophistication, and fun. Nonetheless, achieving targeted wedding sales still poses a challenge as it only achieved 80% of targeted sales. W Bali - Seminyak needs to understand factors that form wedding planners’ willingness to recommend the place as a wedding venue. Seventy wedding planners in Bali that are registered in the company’s database will be used as the sample. Exploratory factor analysis will be used to cluster items that make a wedding planner willing to recommend W Bali – Seminyak. Exploratory Factor Analysis (EFA) was used as a statistical technique to identify underlying factors or dimensions that explain the variation in a set of observed variables. From the results of the data processed by SPSS factor analysis, it was known that there are 8 factors that contribute to the wedding planners’ willingness to recommend: perceived employee quality, client experience, output service quality, physical evidence, attractiveness, aesthetic view, additional assurance determinants, and price. This research was conducted at the beginning of Covid-19 pandemic, further studies need to be done on whether the conclusion of this paper will hold post covid-19.

The bailiff’s services in the electronic judicial era in Indonesia

PurposeThe electronic judicial consists of applications supporting cases handling until the court makes a legal decision. The electronic judicial will not only include case administration but also be able to accommodate bailiff's services. At the beginning of Covid-19 pandemic, many bailiff's tasks had to be delayed due to the implementation of movement restrictions and lockdowns, thus hampering the execution process. The impact is that a buildup of cases cannot be completed. The purpose of this paper is to integrate the bailiff's service into the judicial digitalization services so that transparency and accountability in the electronic judicial can be achieved.Design/methodology/approachThe method used is qualitative, with the data collected through in-depth interviews with bailiffs in court. Then it was analyzed through triangulation technique by doing literature studies, discussions and observations.FindingsThis study shows that the bailiff's service needs to be developed and integrated into the electronic judicial in Indonesia, which consists of a case tracking information system, e-court and electronic execution supervision.Originality/valueThis research focuses on bailiff services in Indonesia. The bailiff's assistance in Indonesia must be integrated with applications supporting e-court as electronic judicial in Indonesia. This integration will help solve the case faster in court.

Evaluation of oxygen saturation as an indicator for tracheal intubation in patients with COVID-19: a prospective cohort study

Background. Since the beginning of COVID-19 pandemic, the importance of clinical criteria for tracheal intubation in critically ill patients with respiratory failure became more noteworthy, especially in resource limitations. The objective was to evaluate the importance of hemoglobin oxygen saturation as a criterion for tracheal intubation in patients with COVID-19. Materials and methods. This is a multi-center, prospective, observational cohort study. We included 117 patients with COVID-19 who needed respiratory support between March to June 2021. Patients were intubated by the protocol of each institution participating in the study and the anesthesiologist’s clinical judgement. Signs of respiratory failure, methods of respiratory support and patient outcome were recorded. Results. Among 117 studied cases, 100 patients had hemoglobin oxygen saturation of 60–90 % in whom 58 were intubated. During hospitalization, 56 intubated patients and 14 non-intubated patients died (96.6 % Vs. 33.3 %). Conclusion. Arterial blood hemoglobin oxygen saturation of 60–90 could not be the correct key to unlock the problem of intubation decision in patients with COVID-19. Therefore, hemoglobin oxygen saturation should not be solely regarded as an indication for intubation in COVID-19.

COVID-19 severity and risk factors in Iranian patients with rheumatic diseases

Since the beginning of COVID-19 pandemic, there was a concern whether patients with rheumatic diseases are at increased risk of severe COVID-19 in terms of the multi-system involvement, underlying comorbidities, and anti-rheumatic medications. We intended to evaluate the severity and mortality of COVID-19 in these patients, as well as the demographic, laboratory, and clinical risk factors associated with the disease. In patients with plasma chane reaction positive COVID-19 admitted to the hospital, laboratory and clinical measures after hospitalization and severity measures such as length of hospitalization, hospitalization in the intensive care unit, and mortality were compared between patients with and matched patients without a history of rheumatic disease. Moreover, risk factors associated with COVID-19 mortality in the case group were calculated by odds ratio (OR). We found no statistically significant difference in COVID-19 severity between the two groups (mortality rate of 22% in case and 25% in control groups, P-value = 0.83). Except for platelet markers, which were considerably greater in the case group despite not being related with the severity of the illness, the available laboratory measurements did not vary between these groups. In addition, we showed that age over 65 years (OR = 4.06), lactic dehydrogenase level, percentage of lung involvement and ischemic heart disease (OR = 6.24) were associated with poorer outcome in the patients with rheumatic diseases. Hence, we found that usage of conventional synthetic disease modifying anti-rheumatic drugs (OR = 2.3, P-value = 0.48) or daily treatment dose of prednisolone >10 mg/d (OR = 1.04) were not associated with COVID-19 mortality. Although the patients with rheumatic disease may be at increased risk of developing a COVID-19 infection, they do not experience more severe disease.

Biodegradation of COVID19 antibiotic; azithromycin and its impact on soil microbial community in the presence of phenolic waste and with temperature variation

The increase in using antibiotics, especially Azithromycin have increased steadily since the beginning of COVID19 pandemic. This increase has led to its presence in water systems which consequently led to its presence upon using this water for irrigation. The aim of the present work is to study the impact of irrigation using Azithromycin containing water on soil microbial community and its catabolic activity in the presence of phenolic wastes as compost. Wild berry, red grapes, pomegranate, and spent tea waste were added to soil and the degradation was monitored after 5 and 7 days at ambient and high temperatures. The results obtained show that at 30 °C, soil microbial community collectively was able to degrade Azithromycin, while at 40 °C, addition of spent tea as compost was needed to reach higher degradation. To ensure that the degradation was biotic and depended on degradation by indigenous microflora, a 25 kGy irradiation dose was used to kill the microorganisms in the soil and this was used as negative control. The residual antibiotic was assayed using UV spectroscopy and High Performance Liquid Chromatography (HPLC). Indication of Azithromycin presence was studied using Fourier Transform Infrared Spectroscopy (FTIR) peaks and the same pattern was obtained using the 3 used detection methods, the ability to assign the peaks even in the presence of soil and not to have any overlaps, gives the chance to study this result in depth to prepare IR based sensor for quick sensing of antibiotic in environmental samples.

Reproductive intentions of Russians with children at the beginning of COVID-19 pandemic

The paper studies the reproductive intentions of the Russians who already have at least one child before and during the quarantine restrictions (lockdowns) due to COVID-19. Binary choice logistic models and a set of machine learning models were evaluated on the data from the Person, Family, Society survey conducted in March—May 2020. Modeling of the respondents’ intentions to have more children in the short term (3 years) and the long term (more than 3 years) showed that external shocks such as the COVID-19 pandemic and the strict quarantine regulations associated with it had an impact on fertility intentions, but only in the short term. These external shocks were less significant than such factors as age of the respondent; the number of children already born; availability of housing needed to expand the family; the maternity capital program availability, which includes the opportunity to improve housing conditions after the birth of children. As Russians with children showed the increase of the probability of having additional children after April 2020, we conclude that the effect of COVID-19 on reproductive intentions was acyclical. The estimation of models with heterogeneous effects showed that the pandemic had a stronger impact on respondents with above-average household incomes.

Reproductive intentions of Russians with children at the beginning of COVID-19 pandemic

The paper studies the reproductive intentions of the Russians who already have at least one child before and during the quarantine restrictions (lockdowns) due to COVID-19. Binary choice logistic models and a set of machine learning models were evaluated on the data from the Person, Family, Society survey conducted in March—May 2020. Modeling of the respondents’ intentions to have more children in the short term (3 years) and the long term (more than 3 years) showed that external shocks such as the COVID-19 pandemic and the strict quarantine regulations associated with it had an impact on fertility intentions, but only in the short term. These external shocks were less significant than such factors as age of the respondent; the number of children already born; availability of housing needed to expand the family; the maternity capital program availability, which includes the opportunity to improve housing conditions after the birth of children. As Russians with children showed the increase of the probability of having additional children after April 2020, we conclude that the effect of COVID-19 on reproductive intentions was acyclical. The estimation of models with heterogeneous effects showed that the pandemic had a stronger impact on respondents with above-average household incomes.

The relationship between economic growth and e-commerce at the beginning of covid-19 pandemic in east Java

The purpose of this study is to analyse the simultaneous spatial relationship between economic growth and e-commerce as well as the spillover effect between the two variables in East Java at the beginning of the Covid-19 pandemic in 2020. To answer the research objectives, spatial simultaneous modeling is used with the Spatial Autoregressive Generalized Spatial Three Model. Stage Least Square (SAR-GS3SLS) using rook contiguity. Based on the results of the SAR-GS3SLS, it can be concluded that at the beginning of the Covid-19 pandemic in 2020 in East Java, economic growth and e-commerce were simultaneously spatially interconnected. Variables that affect East Java's economic growth are e-commerce activities, the number of villages that have Base Transceiver Stations (BTS) and the spatial lag of economic growth (ρ1) while the open unemployment rate (TPT) and the Gini ratio have no significant effect on growth. economy. Variables that affect e-commerce are economic growth, internet banking users, percentage of population who have cellphones, number of millennials, number of villages that have ATMs and spatial lag of e-commerce (ρ2) while the number of villages with 4G/LTE signals has no effect on e-commerce. commerce. Regencies/cities that provide the highest spillover of economic growth and e-commerce in East Java are Malang, Mojokerto and Madiun Regencies. The three districts were able to provide a positive net spillover.

The association between different blood group systems and susceptibility to COVID-19: a single center cross-sectional study from Saudi Arabia.

Since the beginning of COVID-19 pandemic, many associated factors have been investigated to clarify the susceptibility and severity among the affected individuals. Biological markers can play an important role in identification of individual susceptibility to such pandemic. Growing evidence suggest the influence of different blood group systems on susceptibility to COVID-19 virus, with a particular blood type conferring selection advantage. The study aimed to determine the association of ABO, Rhesus (D) and P1 blood groups with COVID-19 susceptibility in Taif city, Western Saudi Arabia. ABO, D and P1 blood antigens were determined in 104 blood samples of COVID-19 patients versus 100 control samples using either automated immunohematology analyser or test tube method. Statistical differences between patients and control samples were calculated based on p-value where results of ≤ 0.05 were considered significant. O+ve blood group constituted the predominant type among the studied samples. Determination of P1 antigen showed significant association where Anti-P1 was positive in 76.9% of patients compared to 61.0% of controls with a P value of 0.01 conferring the susceptibility of P1+ve patients to COVID-19. Although our study showed no significant association between ABO and D, and susceptibility to COVID-19, there was a significant association between P1+ve and COVID-19. P1+ve participants were 2.131 times more associated with the risk of COVID-19 infection than those with Anti P1-ve. Thus, P1 antigen can be used as a biological marker for identification of individuals susceptibility to COVID-19. It is strongly advised that such individuals should consider extra protective measures. Further studies on other contributing factors should also be considered for more scientific clarity.

Gauging Stress, Anxiety, Depression in Student during COVID-19 Pandemic

During the beginning of COVID-19 pandemic, studies came across the world concerning with health issues. Researches began to find the repercussions of the virus. The virus was found to be versatile as it changes its nature and targets the lungs of a person. Later, it was seen an astonishing massacre around the world due to the virus. Many people have lost their life but many more people are still suffering with bad psychological state. Researchers began to research on the nature virus but very few researches were made on the other side-effects of this pandemic. One such crucial subject to attend in contemporary world is the effect of COVID-19 on psychological state in general population. This side-effect may lead to raise an alarming situation in future that could result in more death cases. The proposed paper presents a study on the detection of stress and depression in people caused by the pandemic. The proposed methodology is based on perceived questionnaire method through which people’s responses are recorded in the form of text. COVID victims have been interrogated against a set of questions and their responses are recorded. The methodology performs text mining of their responses that also include the people’s reaction from social networking sites. The text processing of people’s responses is done by natural language processing (NLP). NLP is used to interpret textural facts into meaningful segments that must be understandable to machine. The refined data has been transformed into PSS (perceived stress scale) scaling factor that ranges from 0 to 4 showing various level of stress. The proposed system utilized artificial intelligence in which naive Bayes classifier, K-nearest neighbor (KNN), Decision tree and Random forest algorithms are applied to predict the emotional state of a person. The proposed system also uses data from social networking site for testing purpose. The model successfully shows a comparative study of such three classifiers for the classification of stress level into stress, anxiety and depression.

Prevalence of Cutaneous Manifestations in COVID-19 Patients and Their Relationship With Disease Severity

At the beginning of COVID-19 pandemic, highly accurate information about the clinical manifestations of the disease was not available, and the reported symptoms were non-specific and more related to respiratory symptoms such as fever, dry cough, fatigue, and sputum production. As time has passed, skin manifestations have been proposed as one of the clinical manifestations of COVID-19 in some patients. Among all reported lesions, livedoid lesions appeared simultaneously with the symptoms of SARS-CoV-2, mainly in elderly people with severe infections, and were associated with the highest risk of the mortality of all skin lesions. Knowledge of the skin manifestations that may be the only symptoms of COVID-19 may help in early diagnosis and specific treatment. In the current review, the skin findings of patients in association with COVID-19 were summarized into the categories of maculopapular or morbilliform lesions, urticarial lesions, chilblain-like lesions, vesicular lesions, petechiae or purpura lesions, and livedoid lesions.

Characteristics and Trends of COVID-19 Infection in a Tertiary Hospital in Romania: A Retrospective Study.

(1) Background: The outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic represented a real challenge for all of humanity. Characterized by a complex spectrum of signs and symptoms, by various severity degrees, the disease spread rapidly around the world. After more than two and half years since the beginning of COVID-19 pandemic, in the context of a paradoxical, enigmatic, and relentless COVID-19, the objective of the current study was to evaluate the characteristics and evolution of patients with SARS-CoV-2 infection, hospitalized in "St. Parascheva" Clinical Hospital of Infectious Diseases (Iasi, Romania). (2) Methods: This is a retrospective study that used the medical database recorded between July and November 2021 in order to highlight the characteristics of SARS-CoV-2 infection in patients from the northeastern region of Romania. (3) Results: We enrolled in the study a total of 1732 SARS-CoV-2 infected patients, mean age 67 ± 3.4 years, the female gender predominating (987 cases; 56.98%) as well as patients from the urban environment (982 patients; 56.69%). Moderate form of the disease predominated (814 cases; 47%), pulmonary imaging changes were found in 1042 (60.16%) cases, and 1242 (71.71%) patients had at least one underlying disease. After a median length of hospitalization of 9.5 days, 1359 (78.46%) patients were discharged cured, 48 (2.77%) were transferred to other services by decompensating the associated pathologies, 302 (17.43%) patients needed extensive support in the intensive care unit and there were 325 (18.76%) deaths. (4) Conclusions: The epidemiological characteristics of SARS-CoV-2 infection recorded in our study were mostly the same as characteristics of COVID-19 from all over the world.

Occurrence of phthalates in facemasks used in India and its implications for human exposure

ABSTRACT Synthetic polymers with additives are used in the manufacturing of face masks (FMs); hence, FMs could be a potential source of exposure to phthalic acid esters (PAEs). India stands second in the world in terms of the FMs usage since the beginning of Covid-19 pandemic. However, little is known about the PAEs content of FMs used in India. Some PAEs, such as DEHP and DBP are suspected endocrine disrupting chemicals (EDCs); hence, wearing FM may increase the risk of exposure to these EDCs. In this study, we collected 91 samples of FMs from eight Indian cities and analyzed for five PAEs viz. DMP, DEP, DBP, BBP, and DEHP. The PAEs contents in FMs ranged from 101.79 to 27,948.64 ng/g. The carcinogenic risk of N 95 with filter, N-95, and cloth masks was higher than the threshold levels. The findings indicate the need to control PAEs in FMs through regulatory actions.

Disease Characteristics and Psychiatric Comorbidities in Adolescents with Anorexia Nervosa Hospitalized During COVID-19 Pandemic

Since the beginning of COVID-19 pandemic, an increase in new diagnoses and pediatric hospital admission for anorexia nervosa (AN) or atypical AN in adolescents have been reported, suggesting an adverse effect of COVID-19 on youth mental health. We hypothesized possible differences in prevalence of hospitalization and/or disease severity, related to socio-economic status and/or ethnicity. Retrospectively, patients were divided into two subgroups and compared according to the date of first hospital admission: "pre SARS-COV2 era" group (n. 45, 8th March 2016-8th March 2020) and "SARS-COV2 era" group (n. 43, 9th March 2020-8th March 2022). During the two years of the SARS-COV2 era, we reported an increase in hospital admission incidence more than doubled respect to the "pre-SARS-COV2 era". The "SARS-COV2 era group" showed a more rapid weight loss (p = 0.005), a minor duration of weight loss from lifetime maximum to admission (p = 0.019) and needed most frequently treatments with intravenous fluids (p < 0.0001), oral dietetic supplements (p <0.001) and enteral nutrition by nasogastric tube (p = 0.002). The same group presented higher prevalence of psychiatric comorbidities (63% vs. 22%, p < 0.0001) and required most frequently treatments with psychotropic drugs (56% vs. 24%, p = 0.002). We found higher family socioeconomic status (SES) in our patients with AN in both the periods and we did not find a shift in social class distribution over time. Our study confirms a significant increase in incidence of hospitalization and of psychiatric comorbidity in the pediatric population with AN during the second year of COVID-19 pandemic, regardless of SES or ethnic background. Further studies are needed to understand potential mechanisms that during COVID-19 pandemic trigger eating disorder symptoms.

Changes in HIV testing trends in Poland during COVID-19 pandemic.

At the beginning of COVID-19 pandemic, due to lockdown, limited mobility, as well as changes in the activity profile of some laboratories, the restriction also applied to access to various screening tests, including HIV screening tests. The aim of the study was to assess HIV testing trend during COVID-19 pandemic in laboratories in Poland and its comparison to the preceding years, with special focus on testing in the network of Voluntary Testing and Counselling (VCT) sites serving population with higher behavior risk, which increase the possibility of HIV infection. Analysis of the changes in HIV tests number was based on the results of the annual survey of HIV tests conducted among the laboratories throughout the country. The questionnaire included data on screening and positive tests by testing site type, age group and gender. In addition, we extracted data collected in comprehensive National AIDS Centre database, based on epidemiological and behavior data collected by VCT on people who come for testing. There are approximately 400,000 HIV tests annually run in general population in last years. COVID-19 pandemic, which occurred in beginning of 2020 did not have a huge impact on HIV test number among these population, because there was observed 1% decreased. Pandemic COVID-19, due to few lockdown reduced the HIV tests number among VCT clients - population with higher HIV risk infection. Tests number decreased by 44% compare to previous year, due to temporal closed of these centres. Data analysis shows that due to the pandemic, the structure of the surveyed people changed, especially in terms of age and gender, and the place where the study was performed. We confirmed low HIV testing rates in general population and low positivity rate over the studied period. The positivity rate was higher in the testing site network targeting individuals engaging in high risk behaviors. Changes observed in HIV testing trends in recent years have been affected by the COVID-19 pandemic.