Government Lockdown Research Articles

Is ‘Contribution to Theory’ an Unhealthy Obsession for Management Research? A Response to Zhang and Chen

The early months of the COVID pandemic prompted a flood of research aimed at illuminating all facets of the disease and its spread. Scholars sought to create and assess practical interventions that ranged from vaccines to government lockdown policies to workplace practices. To date, there are nearly a half-million publications on the pandemic, and more are in process.

Post-lockdown burden of road injury involving hospitalisation in Victoria, Australia: A statewide, population-based time series analysis.

Ever since COVID-19, short-term changes in transport injury patterns have been observed. The aim is to examine both the initial and the enduring impact of government lockdown and the pandemic on road injuries requiring hospitalisation and road fatalities. Time series analysis of Transport Accident Commission (TAC) claims involving hospitalisation and fatalities in Victoria, Australia, from July 2016 to May 2023, including lockdown (March 2020 to October 2020) and post-lockdown (November 2020 onwards). A total of 46 450 TAC claims were included. Average claims during the pre-pandemic period were 652/month. Lockdown restrictions were associated with a statistically significant fall in monthly claims (-255, 95% confidence interval [CI] = -315 to -194, P < 0.01). This was consistent across road users, days of the week, hours of the day, injury severity, sex and central versus rural locations. The post-lockdown period had a statistically significant reduction in monthly claims to 76% (95% CI = 67-84) of pre-pandemic levels (-158, 95% CI = -213 to -102, P <0.01). This was consistent across all subgroups except bicyclist injuries, which remained constant (-8, 95% CI = -16 to 0, P = 0.05). There was a significant upward trend in the fatality-to-claim ratio post-lockdown (0.001, 95% CI = 0-0.001, P <0.01). Road injury requiring hospitalisation decreased significantly during governmental lockdown and has returned to three-quarters of pre-pandemic levels (except bicyclist injuries that have remained constant), but there is an increasingly disproportionate number of fatalities. This represents a new baseline of injury burden for EDs and hospitals that manage trauma patients.

The Analysis of Social Facts in “The Plague” by Albert Camus

This research aims to analyze the social facts and interpret quotes that express them in the novel "The Plague" in Oran City, Algeria, and the impacts on society. In this research, the writer used a qualitative method; the data was collected by reading the novel and analyzed using a sociological approach. As the result of this research, there are nine social facts from the book: Social Conditions (Society and Environment), Rat Pest, Health Committee, Epidemic/Plague, Prevention/ Government Rules, Lockdown, and Religious Activities (Prayers and Sermons).

Connectedness of Vietnamese bank stock returns under the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic

The COVID-19 pandemic highlighted the sensitivity of connectedness among bank stock returns in Vietnam. The aim of this study is to examine the strength of this connectedness along with the effect of government lockdown policy and COVID-19 cases on the total connectedness index (TCI) of 16 listed banks on Vietnamese stock exchanges. They are assessed using the database of FiinPro on the banking sector between January 2020 and July 2022, Vietnam Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), and The World Health Organization (WHO) on the COVID-19 pandemic, employing a time-varying-parameter vector autoregressive (TVP-VAR) connectedness framework and the conditional quantile regression model. The results show that at the firm level, there is strong interdependence among bank stock returns with the average TCI being as high as 90.66%. It is also revealed that medium and large-sized banks are receivers of shock, while smaller banks are transmitters. As far as the impact on TCI is concerned, the widespread of the pandemic with the increasing number of COVID-19 cases is significantly negative, whereas the tightening of lockdown is significantly positive. Besides, the degree of the impact varies according to the 95th, 75th, 50th and 25th levels of conditional quantile regression. Based on the study’s findings, individual investors are recommended to thoroughly analyze the connectedness of banks before making investment decisions, while bank regulators should strengthen controls on credit relationships with small banks. Regarding policy makers, it is proposed to apply flexible restrictions and short-term lockdown depending on the actual outbreak of the pandemic. AcknowledgmentThe paper was conducted within the scope of Project QG21.48 of Vietnam National University.

Lessons learned from COVID-19: improving breast cancer services from the patient perspective

Abstract Globally, health services for breast cancer (BC) were significantly disrupted due to the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic (1)and the recovery and adaptation of health services is widely unknown(2). The purpose of this study is to reflect on the health service experiences of women with a diagnosis of BC in Ireland during the pandemic and to propose patient-centered priorities and recommendations to improve BC services moving forward from COVID-19. The study included semi-structured qualitative interviews (n = 28) with women who participated in a related mixed-methods cohort study. Women with a diagnosis of BC within 5 years in Ireland were initially enrolled and women were selected for interviews through stratified purposive sampling to ensure data was available on diverse cases. Interviews took place in early 2023 to reflect on perspectives from the COVID-19 government lockdown. Thematic analysis was conducted using NVivo software. Thematic analysis highlighted three main themes: unmet needs; patient priorities; and recommendations. Women discussed unmet needs such as routine care fall-out, mental well-being, and financial difficulties. Patient priorities included cohesion among multidisciplinary BC care, proper communication with BC health professionals, and self-empowerment in BC care. Lastly, women recommended improvements for the transition from active treatment, support services, and adaptation of telemedicine. “I do think that any patient going through cancer treatments, it's not just breast cancer, any patient ... there needs to be a little bit more support for the aftercare.” The pandemic has impacted BC services considerably, and this impact has accentuated unmet needs for women with BC in Ireland. Considering these unmet needs from varying backgrounds, patient- centred priorities and recommendations were proposed. To conclude, the patient voice should be prioritized when implementing changes for improvement to health services. Key messages • Health systems must learn from the pandemic to improve services and to avoid detrimental impact of future disasters. • The patient voice should be a key stakeholder when implementating health policies.

The lived experiences of tuberculosis survivors during the COVID-19 pandemic and government lockdown in South Africa: a qualitative analysis

BackgroundTuberculosis (TB) is a major health concern in South Africa, where prior to COVID-19 it was associated with more deaths than any other infectious disease. The COVID-19 pandemic disrupted gains made in the global response to TB, having a serious impact on the most vulnerable. COVID-19 and TB are both severe respiratory infections, where infection with one places individuals at increased risk for negative health outcomes for the other. Even after completing TB treatment, TB survivors remain economically vulnerable and continue to be negatively affected by TB.MethodsThis cross-sectional qualitative study, which was part of a larger longitudinal study in South Africa, explored how TB survivors’ experienced the COVID-19 pandemic and government restrictions. Participants were identified through purposive sampling and were recruited and interviewed at a large public hospital in Gauteng. Data were analyzed thematically, using a constructivist research paradigm and both inductive and deductive codebook development.ResultsParticipants (n = 11) were adults (24–74 years of age; more than half male or foreign nationals) who had successfully completed treatment for pulmonary TB in the past two years. Participants were generally found to be physically, socioeconomically, and emotionally vulnerable, with the COVID-19 pandemic exacerbating or causing a recurrence of many of the same stressors they had faced with TB. Coping strategies during COVID similarly mirrored those used during TB diagnosis and treatment, including social support, financial resources, distraction, spirituality, and inner strength.ConclusionsImplications and suggestions for future directions include fostering and maintaining a strong network of social support for TB survivors.

Impact of Covid-19 on Zimbabwean Immigrants and Refugees

COVID-19's outbreak in China at the end of 2019 and its expansion to South Africa have had a detrimental socioeconomic impact on Zimbabwean migrants and refugees in South Africa and immigrants and refugees are the hardest hit during the pandemic. The South African government's lockdown measures resulted in the shutdown of non-essential industries such as travel and tourism, construction, and e-hailing services, where most Zimbabwean migrants and refugees work as frontline workers. Some individuals are employed by shady businesses that can't afford to pay them during downtime. Others ran unregistered enterprises that were denied access to business relief packages due to technicalities. Furthermore, only a small percentage of the estimated 2 million Zimbabwean immigrants and refugees are documented to meet the access requirements for the aid packages. The government's ostensibly all-encompassing COVID-19 relief package requirements were as disparate as they were on paper. Negative nationalism, which sparked xenophobic attacks in 2008, 2015, and 2019, appears to underpin the government's foreign policy framework and attitude. According to the findings, the lockdown resulted in the loss of work, abject poverty, and broken marriages among Zimbabwean immigrants. To live, many turned to prostitution, drug dealing, and rampant opportunism.&#x0D;

US state‐level economic freedom during the COVID‐19 pandemic

AbstractThe COVID‐19 pandemic led to extensive new government regulations and lockdown policies that significantly reduced economic freedom across US states. Many of these new pandemic‐related regulatory restrictions on economic freedom varied significantly from state to state but are largely missed by the existingEconomic Freedom of North America Report(EFNA). This paper adjusts the Our World in DataCOVID‐19 Stringency Indexinto a state‐level measure oflockdown regulatory freedomand then merges it into the EFNA index to better measure relative economic freedom across US states in 2020. We find significant differences in the relative ranking of economic freedom between states once we adjust for lockdown regulatory restrictions.

Not going out during the Covid‐19 pandemic? A multilevel geographical analysis of UK Google Mobility Reports, February 2020–December 2021

AbstractThe analysis reported in this paper uses Google Mobility Reports to understand subnational trends in population spatial immobility/mobility in the United Kingdom during 2020 and 2021. Using multilevel modelling, it analyses how spatial mobility changed through time in response to the strictness of government lockdown and the annual seasonal cycle of public holidays, and between places in terms of their population composition as measured by the shares of the highly‐educationally qualified and the self‐employed. The results show that there are no consistent differences between the nations of the United Kingdom; that time spent at home increased with the severity of lockdown; that the share of highly qualified was also a good predictor of staying at home; and that there were major effects from public holidays. The analysis did not explain all the variation between places and dates; it is suggested that this is because of randomisation of the data by Google and unmodelled factors such as tiered restrictions.

The Impact of COVID-19 on Supplies of Routine Childhood Immunization in Oromia Regional State, Ethiopia: A Mixed Method Study.

Globally, national immunization programs are at risk of disruption due to severe health system constraints caused by the ongoing Corona Virus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic. To assess the impact of COVID-19 on the availability of supplies of routine childhood immunization in the Oromia Regional State in Ethiopia. A health facility-based mixed-methods of study design was conducted. Both quantitative and qualitative data were collected using pre-tested questionnaires and key informant interview question guides, respectively. Descriptive statistics such as frequencies, means, and standard deviations were performed. Binary logistic regression analysis was employed to assess the associations between the COVID-19 pandemic and the availability of vaccine-related supplies at health facilities in study area. The qualitative data were analyzed using a thematic content analysis approach. Of the total 448 study participants, 214 (47.8%) reported that COVID-19 has disrupted childhood vaccines availability. A significant proportion of participants agreed with the disruption of BCG (62.1%), OPV (48%), IPV (40.4%), and PENTA (36.9%) vaccine availabilities. These findings were also supported with key informant interviews. Fear of not maintaining physical distance (71.4%) followed by government lockdown (68.1%) and inadequate supply by local providers/suppliers (62.4%) were the most frequently reported likely causes for the observed disruptions. A large proportion of participants (87.7% and 81.7%) reported disruptions in the supply of face masks and hand gloves, respectively. As to the binary logistic regression analysis, the study participants from hospitals were 1.72 (1.01, 2.68; 95% CI) times more likely to report the impacts of COVID-19. Corona Virus Disease -19 significantly disrupted the availability of supplies of childhood immunization in the Oromia region. The most disrupted vaccines and related supplies were BCG, OPV, IPV, PENTA, facemasks, and hand gloves. An effective vaccine supply management is crucial to prevent disruptions during pandemics such as COVID-19.

Measuring economic freedom during the Covid-19 pandemic

AbstractThe Covid-19 pandemic in 2020 led to extensive new government regulations and lockdown policies that, according to some prominent definitions, severely reduced economic freedom. However, many of these new pandemic-related regulatory restrictions on economic freedom are largely missed by the Economic Freedom of the World Report (EFW). This paper first adjusts the Our World in Data Covid-19 Stringency Index into a measure of lockdown regulatory freedom and then merges it into the EFW index to better measure countries' 2020 cross-sectional relative economic freedom. We find significant differences in the relative ranking of economic freedom between countries once we adjust for lockdown regulatory restrictions.

To lockdown or not to lockdown: Analysis of the EU lockdown performance vs. COVID-19 outbreak.

The worldwide COVID-19 outbreak has dramatically called for appropriate responses from governments. Scientists estimated both the basic reproduction number and the lethality of the virus. The former one depends on several factors (environment and social behavior, virus characteristics, removal rate). In the absence of specific treatments (vaccine, drugs) for COVID-19 there was a limited capability to control the likelihood of transmission or the recovery rate. Therefore, to limit the expected exponential spread of the disease and to reduce its consequences, most national authorities have adopted containment strategies that are mostly focused on social distancing measures. In this context, we performed an analysis of the effects of government lockdown policies in 5 European Countries (France, Germany, Italy, Spain, United Kingdom). We used phone mobility data, published by Apple Inc. and Google, as an indirect measure of social distancing over time since we believe they represent a good approximation of actual changes in social behaviors. (i) The responsiveness of the governments in taking decisions. (ii) The coherence of the lockdown policy with changes in mobility data. (iii) The lockdown implementation performance in each country. (iv) The effects of social distancing on the epidemic evolution. These data were first analyzed in relation with the evolution of political recommendations and directives to both assess (i) responsiveness of governments in taking decisions and (ii) the implementation performance in each country. Subsequently, we used data made available by John Hopkins University in the attempt to compare changes in people behaviors with the evolution of COVID-19 epidemic (confirmed cases, new and cumulative) in each country in scope. Finally, we made an attempt to identify some key lockdown performance parameters in order to: (i) establish responsiveness, efficiency and effectiveness of the lockdown measures. (ii) model the latency occurring between the changes in social behaviors and the changes in growth rate of the disease.

Reduction in initiations of drug-sensitive tuberculosis treatment in South Africa during the COVID-19 pandemic: Analysis of retrospective, facility-level data.

In response to the global pandemic of COVID-19, South Africa implemented a strict lockdown in March 2020 before its first COVID-19 wave started, gradually lifted restrictions between May and September 2020, and then re-imposed restrictions in December 2020 in response to its second wave. There is concern that COVID-19-related morbidity and mortality, the deprioritization of TB activities, fear of transmission, and societal restrictions led to a reduction in tuberculosis (TB) treatment initiations. We analysed monthly public sector, facility-level data from South Africa's District Health Information System (DHIS) from January 2019 to April 2021 to quantify changes in TB treatment initiation numbers stratified by province, setting, and facility type and compared the timing of these changes to COVID-19 case numbers and government lockdown levels. At the 1189 facilities that reported observations for all 28 months of our study period, TB treatment initiations in 2020 were 20.4% lower than in 2019 and 21.9% lower in the first four months of 2021 than in 2019. At the 3669 facilities that reported observations in ≤28 months, numbers of TB treatment initiations declined sharply in all provinces in May-August 2020, compared to the same months in 2019. After recovering somewhat in the last four months of 2020, numbers plummeted again in early 2021. Percentage reductions were somewhat larger in urban and peri-urban areas than in rural areas. Most provinces experienced a clear inverse relationship between COVID-19 cases and TB treatment initiations but little relationship between TB treatment initiations and lockdown level. The COVID-19 pandemic and responses to it resulted in substantial declines in the number of individuals starting treatment for TB in South Africa and risked progress toward achieving TB management goals. Exceptional effort will be needed to sustain gains in combating TB.

How do gold and oil react to the COVID-19 pandemic: A review

This paper reviews COVID-19 pandemic-related literature to examine its impacts on oil and gold prices during and since the initial outbreak. The literature reviewed covers varying markets, hypotheses, methodologies, robustness checks, and findings. Crude oil is important to everyday life for individuals, businesses, investors, and markets globally. The forces exerted by demand and supply and shocks can greatly increase volatility in oil commodity prices, which has been the case during the COVID-19 pandemic outbreak. Oil has also in the past been used as a risk diversifier in portfolio optimization strategies. Gold has long been seen as a safe-haven asset that investors flee to during economic and financial market uncertainty and turbulence. How did the COVID-19 health crisis affect these two commodities during its initial outbreak and consequent persistence since then? How did government lockdown and restriction measures, monetary and fiscal stimulus packages, and pandemic-related news impact these commodity markets and their movements? Is there a contagion volatility effect between different markets and if so, who have been net transmitters and recipients of these flow-on effects? This literature review offers some insight into the answers to these questions while also highlighting the importance of further study since COVID-19 and its strains are not finished with the world yet.

Quantifying NO2 Reduction Before and During Covid-19 Movement Control Order In Major Cities And Industrial Area In Peninsular Malaysia Using Satellite Data Observation

Movement Control Order (MCO) which was the restrictions or the lockdown that were implemented by the government of Malaysia from 18 March 2020 to 31 March 2020. Our study aims to evaluate Nitrogen Dioxide (NO2) changes, before and during the MCO in Malaysia’s major cities especially the Klang Valley area as well as some industrial areas in the country. Tropospheric NO2 vertical column density from the TROPOspheric Monitoring Instrument (TROPOMI) was used to evaluate the spatial-temporal variations of the NO2 before and during the first phase of the MCO for the entire Peninsular. It is found that the NO2 concentrations is very prominent in Greater Klang Valley (GKV) but those location outside the GKV are related to Power Plant Stations in the country. Reduction of NO2 quantified by TROPOMI satellite showed a sharp decline for the daily readings, with the highest differences in Greater Klang Valley urban stations (− 52%) in Cheras, followed by Shah Alam (-43%). The lowest decline was recorded in Putrajaya with only (− 18%). The industrial site locations mostly show neutral readings or low increments as low as 5%. Only the location in Johor Bahru shows a very sharp increase up till 142% perhaps due to the ‘business as usual’ of the neighbouring country. Medium correlation between ground measurement and TROPOMI column was obtained for the Greater Klang Valley locations R=0.455 before the MCO implementation, and R=0.588 after the MCO implementation. These results suggested that air pollution improvement in Greater Klang Valley area is gained from the implementation of the government full scale MCO or lockdown measures. The transportation activities played the key role in decreasing the NO2 level in Greater Klang Valley.

Lockdown, resilience and emergency statecraft in the Cape Town food system

Well before the Covid-19 pandemic, rapidly growing cities of the global South were at the epicenter of multiple converging crises affecting food systems. Globally, government lockdown responses to the disease triggered shocks which cascaded unevenly through urban food systems, exacerbating food insecurity. Cities worldwide developed strategies to mitigate shocks, but research on statecraft enabling food systems resilience is sparse. Addressing this gap, we analyse the case of the African metropolis of Cape Town, where lockdown disrupted livelihoods, mobility and food provision, deepening food insecurity. Employing a vital systems security lens, we show how civil society and state networks mobilised to mitigate and adapt to lockdown impacts. Building on preceding institutional transformations, civil society and state collaborated to deliver emergency food aid, while advocacy networks raised food on the political agenda, formulated proposals, and navigated these through a widened policy window. Emergency statecraft assembled networks and regulatory instruments to secure food systems, enhance preparedness for future disruptions and present opportunities for transition towards more sustainable food systems. However, current food systems configuration enabled powerful actors to resist deeper transformation while devolving impacts to community networks. Despite resilient vested interests and power disparities, advocacy coalitions can anticipate and leverage crises to incrementally advance transformational, pro-poor statecraft.

Oral hygiene assessment of dental students using the Oral Rating Index (ORI)

Background: Oral hygiene screening should be done on a regular basis, notably during the COVID-19 outbreak, during which lifestyle changes and government lockdown policies lower the oral hygiene level. The Oral Rating Index (ORI), established by Kawamura, is the suitable oral hygiene screening index during the COVID-19 pandemic. Dental students are supposed to be role models for the community by maintaining good dental hygiene. Purpose: To study the use of online oral hygiene screening using the ORI and to determine the oral hygiene of dentistry students at Trisakti University. Methods: This research is a cross-sectional descriptive observational study. A total of 100 preclinical dental students from Trisakti University took part in the study. Intraoral photos were taken and sent to the researcher via the internet. The ORI was used to evaluate the data. The reliability of the results was determined using a per cent agreement test and Cohen’s kappa coefficient. Results: The average oral hygiene score of dental students at Trisakti University was 0.58±0.88. The per cent agreement was 88%, and Cohen’s kappa coefficient was κ = 0.79, indicating excellent reliability. Conclusion: Based on their ORI score, it can be stated that dentistry students at Trisakti University have good oral hygiene and that online evaluation using the ORI is a useful tool for routine oral hygiene screening.

The Effect of Strict Lockdown on Omicron SARS-CoV-2 Variant Transmission in Shanghai.

Omicron, the current SARS-CoV-2 variant of concern, is much more contagious than other previous variants. Whether strict lockdown could effectively curb the transmission of Omicron is largely unknown. In this retrospective study, we compared the strictness of government lockdown policies in Shanghai and other countries. Based on the daily Omicron case number from 1 March 2022 to 30 April 2022, the effective reproductive numbers in this Shanghai Omicron wave were calculated to confirm the impact of strict lockdown on Omicron transmission. Pearson correlation was conducted to illustrate the determining factor of strict lockdown outcomes in the 16 different districts of Shanghai. After a very strict citywide lockdown since April 1st, the average daily effective reproductive number reduced significantly, indicating that strict lockdown could slow down the spreading of Omicron. Omicron control is more challenging in districts with higher population mobility and lockdown is more likely to decrease the number of asymptomatic carriers than the symptomatic cases. All these findings indicate that the strict lockdown could curb the transmission of Omicron effectively, especially for the asymptomatic spread, and suggest that differentiated COVID-19 prevention and control measures should be adopted according to the population density and demographic composition of each community.

Covid-19, credit risk management modeling, and government support

We investigate rating and default risk dynamics over the covid-19 crisis from a credit risk modeling perspective. We find that growth dynamics remain a stable and sufficient predictor of credit risk incidence over the pandemic period, despite its large, short-lived swings due to government intervention and lockdown. Unobserved component models as used in the recent credit risk literature appear mainly helpful for explaining the high-default wave in the early 2000s, but less so for default prediction above and beyond growth dynamics during the 2008 financial crisis or the early 2020 covid default peak. Government support variables do not reduce the impact of either growth proxies or unobserved components. Correlations between government support and credit risk are different, however, during the financial and the covid crisis. Using the empirical models in this paper as credit risk management tools, we show that growth factors also suffice to predict credit risk quantiles out-of-sample during covid times.

Did the March 2020 lockdown cause an increase in patients presenting to the emergency department with odontogenic pain and infection? A single centre, retrospective analysis

On the 25 March 2020 the Chief Dental Officer (CDO) published guidance to restrict the provision of routine dental care in England due to the rapid spread of the severe acute respiratory syndrome Coronavirus 2 (COVID-19). We analysed the impact of the pandemic on the number of patients presenting with odontogenic pain and infection to the emergency department (ED) of an urban-based teaching hospital, the Bristol Royal Infirmary (BRI). Furthermore, we investigated the severity of infection at first presentation to the ED. The study period encompassed three phases that represented the stages of pandemic restrictions: phase 1 prior to lockdown measures, with no restrictions to dental practice; phase 2 during the government lockdown, with the severest restrictions on dental practices; and phase 3 following the ease of lockdown measures, with return to limited dental services. Data were collected retrospectively from electronic patient records (EPR) regarding adult patients presenting to the ED with dental pain. The rate of presentations (per week) was calculated for each timepoint and compared. A severity score was assigned to each patient using a grading system based on signs of clinical infection and treatment modality. Patients' presentations were analysed at each phase of the pandemic. There was a 42.8% increase in attendance with oral facial pain and infection to ED from phases 1 to 3. The COVID-19 pandemic resulted in restrictions to routine primary dental care services, which were deemed necessary to reduce the spread of the virus. However, this increased demand on secondary care services, as patients increasingly struggled to access primary dental care to manage dental pain.