International Travel Restrictions Research Articles

Has Digitalisation Mitigated the Impact of Covid-19 on the Manufacturing Sector’s Performance?

The Covid-19 pandemic brought many businesses to a standstill as international travel restriction was imposed across countries in addition to a national lockdown. Firm performances were depressed due to reduced order and output. This study examines whether digitalisation has mitigated the negative impact of the Covid-19 pandemic on Malaysia's manufacturing sector. Using sales as the performance yardstick of 24 industrial sectors from January to December 2020, our result shows that manufacturing sales performance was negatively related to the Covid-19 pandemic. However, the adverse impact of Covid-19 was mitigated with a higher level of digitalisation. The mitigating role of digitalisation remains robust in further analysis. This study has managed to quantify the mitigating effect of Covid-19 on manufacturing sectors. As a policy implication, the government should expedite the introduction of the 5G network, promote digital adoption across all sectors to ensure business continuity and provide an effective response mechanism in any pandemic or crisis.

Office Management In a COVID-19 Era

By the time the World Health Organization ("WHO") upgraded the status of the novel Coronavirus Disease (officially known as COVID-19) outbreak from an epidemic to a global pandemic on 11th March, 2020, the virus had already travelled beyond Wuhan, China, its point of original outbreak in December 2019 and crossed international borders. Given the rapid rate of infection and increasing number of deaths in the wake of the unprecedented spread of the virus, various emergency measures have been deployed by municipal, local, state, national and multilateral authorities to contain the outbreak. Besides being a public health crisis, COVID-19 continues to trigger severe social and economic consequences for individuals, corporates and governments across the world. Specifically, markets and industries are reacting negatively to the pandemic. Global stock and commodity prices (especially crude oil) have plummeted to unprecedented levels in recent weeks, with grave multiplier effects on economies. The general consensus is that this trend is not expected to reverse anytime soon, given the impact of current border closures, international travel restrictions, and lockdown of large swaths of movements of persons in many cities, countries and regions of the world. This paper analyses the key socio-economic consequences of COVID-19 and measures taken by Office managers for mitigating its impact on the operations of organizations. Keywords: Office Management, Socio-economic, COVID-19, Organization Journal Reference Format: Idiake, C.O. (2022): Office Management in a COVID-19 Era. Journal of Behavioural Informatics, Digital Humanities and Development Research. Vol. 8.No. 4, Pp 15-26. Available online at https://www.isteams.net/behavioralinformaticsjournal. dx.doi.org/10.22624/AIMS/BHI/V8N4P1

WHAT DRIVES GEN-Z TO VISIT TOURIST DESTINATIONS USING VIRTUAL REALITY? THE STIMULUS-ORGANISM-RESPONSE APPROACH

The Covid-19 pandemic significantly impacted tourism globally due to international travel restrictions. One of the technological advancements, Virtual Reality (VR), offers the pre-travel experience as an alternative method to alter human existence in tourism destinations. VR has been applied in tourism and hospitality to promote tourist experiences, especially for Gen-Z, a generation born in the technology era. This paper investigates the determinant factors of VR experience impact on Gen-Z's visit intention to Indonesian tourism destinations during the Covid-19 pandemic. This study presents a Stimulus-Organism-Response (SOR) framework to provide a sequential process of the interaction between antecedents and consequences. The model was examined using 199 respondents and employed Smart PLS 3 for empirical analysis to assess the relationship. This study result confirmed that Gen-Z visit intention was derived from their satisfaction as a part of the response stage in the SOR model. Their satisfaction was affected by telepresence, focused attention, and temporal distortion, influenced by the sense and quality of information. This study contributes to digital tourism literature, particularly in VR studies amidst the pandemic. Furthermore, for the managerial implication, this study will give insight for tourism marketers and local or national governments to understand consumer behaviour through the technology approach in order to thrive back in business.

Exploring the Social Trend Indications of Utilizing E-Commerce during and after COVID-19's Hit.

COVID-19 is a major global crisis affecter, changing global norms and societal behavioral models. Many companies have faced existential crises, but on the other hand, businesses that were and are helping others to boost digitalization, ICT and software solutions deployment, remote communications integration, e-commerce & e-services, and so on, have boosted their businesses, as people shifted online during the global lockdown and international travel restrictions. Our work explores the trend of e-commerce and e-services utilization during the ease of restrictions and the social distancing period to forecast the trend continuation patterns after the pandemic. An online survey was conducted and targeted individuals in Saudi Arabia and Egypt, resulting in 155 participants. The data were analyzed from four perspectives: demographics, COVID-19 health impact, trend analysis, and regression analysis. The results indicate heavy utilization of e-commerce and e-services during the global movement restrictions and travel bans. This trend has, however, significantly reduced during the ease of restrictions and social distancing period. Utilizing e-commerce and e-services in Saudi Arabia and Egypt, based on the research data, is positively correlated to the outbreak conditions. On the other hand, current data still does not give clear indications, and this pattern is going to be mostly, partly, or not at all permanent now as societies are returning to mostly a free movement of people and marginally restricted social distancing times.

Skills for Employability in Tourism and Hospitality: Overviewof the Challenges and Needs After Covid-19

The covid-19 epidemic is leading to a huge economic crisis in the short and medium term, with tourism and hospitality industry being one of the hardest hit sectors in terms of income and employment with a great amount of decline of international demand amid global travel restrictions to constrain the virus. In this context, this study attempts to draw attention to the effects of covid-19 on tourism and hospitality employment. Specifically, two major impacts on the workforce are detected and discussed within this scope: job losses and the issue of skills in the international tourism sector (challenges and needs after covid-19). Following the examination of these effects, some suggestions for the future of employment in the tourism sector were presented. The implications of this research can affect tertiary professional training institutions, which need to address necessary changes to employability skills in the curriculum. These findings provide information for development of curriculum to meet the respective needs as the industry moves through this pandemic era.

Global transmission of COVID-19 — A gravity model approach

This paper aims to describe the spatiotemporal transmission of COVID-19 and examine how various factors influence the global spread of COVID-19 using a modified gravity model. Log-linearizing the model, we run a negative binomial regression with observational data from 22 January 2020 to 31 December 2020. In the first model, population size and GDP per capita are positively related to the sum of newly confirmed COVID-19 cases within a 10-day window; the values for both variables are statistically significant throughout the study period. However, the significance of geographic distance varies. When a single geographic source exits in the early stage, the value is statistically significant. In the intermediate stage, when disease transmission is explosive between countries, the distance loses its statistical significance due to the emergence of multiple geographic transmission sources. In the containment stage, when the spread of disease is more likely to occur within a country, distance becomes statistically significant. According to the second model, the government’s internal movement control and nonpharmaceutical intervention policy, percentage of the population over 70 years old, and population-weighted density are statistically significant and are positively related to the incidence of COVID-19. By contrast, average monthly temperature, international travel restriction policies, and political regimes are statistically significant and negatively associated with the dependent variable.

Temporality of Suspension

NOTE FROM THE AUTHORSThe context of our co-authored contribution to the ‘Aesthetic Relations’ conference-publication is a performance devised by Lucie in 2020 to which she invited Kiraṇ as a collaborator. Due to international travel restrictions however, our physical co-pres-ence in a studio and on stage remained suspended throughout that year. Our exchanges nevertheless continued in adaptive turns both before and after that performance. It is this condition of, at once, compromised yet consistent relation with each other that we refer to as ‘suspension’. For us this suspension was at first admittedly a source of disruption, even anxiety of interrupting our artistic flow. Yet there came a point during the year when this swelling tension ruptured, and a strange ease set in. Nothing had changed on the surface (travel restrictions were only extended), yet something had shifted under our skins. While still physically across continents, our online presentation at the conference was a joint essay at articulating, both textually and performatively, the unassuming complexity of this thing that is suspension. By the time of this publication in 2022, we have somewhat broken this suspension by physically meeting in Switzerland in August 2021. As such we have decided not to edit the text that was performed at the conference back in January 2021, and only append it with this contextual note. Here we must add that the text in one of the sections to follow (which begins with “Please turn your head to your left..”) is intended as a score for action. Originally spoken in our voices, we now ask you to invite another person to read this section aloud to you at an unhurried pace, while you respond to the text’s suggestions. As for us, we continue our collabora-tive artistic research of working in and with suspension as artistic strategy through our ongoing exchanges and upcoming projects.

Preface

Materials science and manufacturing process is one of the significant symbols of modern day’s high-tech revolution. The technological developments in the materials science paves the road for advancements in materials science and manufacturing technology across the world. Materials are the key factor for the emerging industries of all kind. In order for new material to get the actual application, exquisite preparation and manufacturing must be processed. No doubt manufacturing is critical in every walk of life. With rapid development computer technology, communications technology and network technology, traditional manufacturing process has evolved to intelligent manufacturing which is more intelligent, more precision and more efficiency. The Fourth International Conference on Materials Science and Manufacturing Technology 2022 (ICMSMT 2022) has provided a forum for researchers, scientists, academicians, scholars and practitioners around the world to present papers on recent developments in the broad fields of Materials Sciences and Manufacturing Technology. The ICMSMT series also provides a premier interdisciplinary platform for researchers, practitioners and educators to present and discuss the most recent innovations, trends, and concerns as well as practical challenges encountered and solutions adopted in the fields of Materials Science, Engineering and Manufacturing. The fourth edition of ICMSMT conference series (ICMSMT 2022) has been organized with partnered by Akshaya College of Engineering & Technology, Coimbatore and Diligentec Solutions, Coimbatore, India. The conference received potential number of submissions from across the world and the papers have been accepted by the editorial board of ICMSMT after the stringent screening and review process. ICMSMT is an annual technical event and has been aimed to be conducted in the second week of April every year. Due to the COVID-19, outbreak in all over the world followed by the national and international travel restrictions, the conference has been organized in online model. Each presenter were given ten minutes for presentation and three minutes for discussion on the queries. The entire meeting has been conducted using Google meet platform. The conference has been successfully completed with all the presentations and keynote sessions. Being the third edition, ICMSMT 2022 had received submissions from different regions of the world and scholars from 8 countries have registered and participated.List of ICMSMT 2022-Committeess, Executive Committee, Editorial Committee, Technical Program Committee Chairs, Technical Program Committee are available in this pdf.

The UK National Health Service's migration infrastructure in times of Brexit and COVID-19: Disjunctures, continuities and innovations.

The COVID‐19 pandemic and Brexit were separate yet inter‐related developments which affected the British National Health Service (NHS). The UK's state‐funded health sector had historically relied on migrant labour and depended on a migration infrastructure designed to solve its nursing labour shortages. The analysis of primary qualitative and secondary quantitative data shows that the NHS migration infrastructure increased its orientation towards Asia to compensate for the effects of Brexit. The paper reveals how the persistent use of temporary visas along with conditional contractual arrangements has led to various exclusions for migrant nurses and midwives. These data also demonstrate how international travel restrictions associated with COVID‐19 created temporary obstacles for nurses' inflows. Alongside Brexit, this has also resulted in an increase in outflows amongst EU health workers. The article identifies the development of migrant support infrastructure amongst Filipino and Indian nurses as a major COVID‐19 linked innovation.

The impact of self-compassionate mindfulness on online learning behavioral engagement of international students during COVID-19: Positive emotion and self-improvement motivation as mediators.

Focusing on the domain of self-compassion, this study explored the promotion mechanism of online learning behavioral engagement (OLBE) of international students in China under COVID-19. Positive emotion and self-improvement motivation were selected as mediators. Participants were 606 international students from 8 countries who were studying online in their own countries due to the international travel restriction of COVID-19. Results showed positive emotion and self-improvement motivation completely mediated self-compassionate mindfulness (SCM) and OLBE of international students. Positive emotion and self-improvement partially mediated SCM and OLBE of international students respectively. Students with higher SCM engage with online learning more in that they possess more positive emotion and self-improvement motivation. This study suggested that SCM may facilitate OLBE via positive emotion and effective self-improvement motivation.

Prevalence of mental health problems among stranded international students during the COVID-19 pandemic

BackgroundThe novel coronavirus disease (COVID-19) spread fast throughout China and the rest of the world, prompting the World Health Organization to declare a worldwide pandemic on March 11, 2020. Many countries have implemented travel bans, lockdowns, and stay-at-home policies to combat the spread of the COVID-19 pandemic. This study aimed to investigate the risk factors of mental health problems among international students stranded outside of China during the pandemic.MethodsA qualitative study was conducted among non-Chinese international students enrolled at Chinese universities who were stranded in their home countries. The participants were recruited using a purposive sampling technique. Following informed consent, in-depth interviews were conducted with the help of a semi-structured guide. Two independent investigators transcribed and coded the interview data. The investigators established themes after going through a detailed discussion.ResultsParticipants reported several mental health risk factors, such as a rise in hopelessness and level of uncertainty, worry, lost interest and focus, lack of support, unemployment and financial hardships, social pressure, behavioral and mood changes, sleep disorder, and increased smoking. These mental health problems will affect the concentration and deep learning, thereby increasing academic stress. In addition, we found that the outbreak of the delta-variant led to a further increase in these mental health risk factors.ConclusionsThe pandemic scenario, along with international travel restrictions, increased the likelihood of mental health problems among stranded international students. Thus, preventing further rises in mental health disorders and reducing the effects of pandemic-related measures on stranded international students, such as researchers and policymakers can mitigate the pandemic's effects and achieve national or international health and educational goals. Adequate intervention for this group is strongly recommended.

Psychological and financial impacts of COVID-19-related travel measures: An international cross-sectional study.

The impact of COVID-19 international travel restrictions has to date, not been fully explored, and with the ongoing threat that new variants could potentially restrict movement further, it is important to consider the impacts that travel restrictions have on community members. This study aimed to evaluate the psychological and financial impact of COVID-19 travel restrictions on those separated from their partners or immediate families, as well as temporary visa holders who were unable to migrate. Between 4 November 2021 to 1 December 2021, we executed a cross-sectional online survey targeting three specific groups; (1) those stranded from their partners; (2) those stranded from immediate families; and (3) temporary visa holders unable to migrate or cross international borders. We collected data on respondents' demographic profile; the nature of COVID-19-related travel impacts; depression, anxiety, and stress levels (using the validated DASS-21); and finally, data on respondents financial, employment and accommodation situation. 1363 respondents located globally completed the survey. 71.2% reported financial stress, 76.8% ([Formula: see text], SD = 5.94) reported moderate-to-extremely severe depression, 51.6% ([Formula: see text], SD = 5.49) moderate-to-extremely severe anxiety, and 62.6% ([Formula: see text], SD = 5.55) moderate-to-extremely severe stress levels. Statistically significant factors associated with moderate-to-extremely severe depression, anxiety, and stress included being female, chronic illness, and experiencing financial stress. Employment during COVID-19 -specifically essential services workers or unemployed-was associated with higher levels of anxiety and stress, with only essential workers being a predictor of higher stress severity. Factors that provided psychological protection included being older and having children. This study is one of the first to explore the impact COVID-19-related international travel restrictions have had on the financial status and psychological health of affected individuals. It highlights the significant human cost associated with the restrictions and identifies psychologically vulnerable populations. These results will help the design of targeted health and social policy responses.

Genomic epidemiology of the first two waves of SARS-CoV-2 in Canada.

Tracking the emergence and spread of SARS-CoV-2 lineages using phylogenetics has proven critical to inform the timing and stringency of COVID-19 public health interventions. We investigated the effectiveness of international travel restrictions at reducing SARS-CoV-2 importations and transmission in Canada in the first two waves of 2020 and early 2021. Maximum likelihood phylogenetic trees were used to infer viruses' geographic origins, enabling identification of 2263 (95% confidence interval: 2159-2366) introductions, including 680 (658-703) Canadian sublineages, which are international introductions resulting in sampled Canadian descendants, and 1582 (1501-1663) singletons, introductions with no sampled descendants. Of the sublineages seeded during the first wave, 49% (46-52%) originated from the USA and were primarily introduced into Quebec (39%) and Ontario (36%), while in the second wave, the USA was still the predominant source (43%), alongside a larger contribution from India (16%) and the UK (7%). Following implementation of restrictions on the entry of foreign nationals on 21 March 2020, importations declined from 58.5 (50.4-66.5) sublineages per week to 10.3-fold (8.3-15.0) lower within 4 weeks. Despite the drastic reduction in viral importations following travel restrictions, newly seeded sublineages in summer and fall 2020 contributed to the persistence of COVID-19 cases in the second wave, highlighting the importance of sustained interventions to reduce transmission. Importations rebounded further in November, bringing newly emergent variants of concern (VOCs). By the end of February 2021, there had been an estimated 30 (19-41) B.1.1.7 sublineages imported into Canada, which increasingly displaced previously circulating sublineages by the end of the second wave.Although viral importations are nearly inevitable when global prevalence is high, with fewer importations there are fewer opportunities for novel variants to spark outbreaks or outcompete previously circulating lineages.

Pandemi Covid 19 Menambah Tantangan Pariwisata Pendakian Gunung Leuser

This study aims to analyze the challenges of tourism in Gunung Leuser on Climbing as a tourism place faced both before and during the COVID-19 pandemic by collecting qualitative data sources such as interviews and direct observations and using the Nvivo application in analyzing tourism during the pandemic. Mount Leuser climbing tour at the Kedah resort which is next to the village of Kedah is the longest hiking trail in Indonesia. This research generally uses descriptive qualitative analysis techniques, the data presented here are in the form of statements that indicate the nature, characteristics and circumstances of the symptoms or events studied. This study uses the NVIVO analysis technique where the data used is secondary data derived from journal articles and government policies in handling COVID-19 in the Gunung Leuser area. The results showed that climbing Mount Leuser tourism was oriented towards special interest tourism and only certain groups of tourists tended to come to visit. The impact of COVID-19 on climbing tourism in Gunung Leuser also affects the Tourism Impact indicators (36%), International Law Travel (12), Travel Restrictions (24%), Tourism Policy (12%), Economy Recovery (4%), and Social Impact (4%). The percentage during Covid-19 that affects tourism policy (policy), affects the impact (recovery) of tourism in Gunung Leuser.

THE TOURISM INDUSTRY IN ROMANIA DURING THE COVID-19 PANDEMIC

The COVID-19 pandemic has had a dramatic and unprecedented impact on the tourism sector, drastically reducing tourism flows and, therefore, the revenues of businesses in this sector. International, regional and local travel restrictions immediately affected national economies, including tourism systems, international travel, domestic tourism, air transport, public transport, accommodation, restaurants, festivals, sports events etc. Beyond the immediate shock, the tourism sector faces other, longer-term challenges, related to its green and digital transformation, its competitiveness, its sustainability and its resilience (according to ECA, Special Report 27 p.4) The paper presents an analysis of tourism in Romania during the 2019-2021 period, based on the analysis of the main indicators and the presentation of the solutions proposed by the European Union to recover the tourism sector. The multiannual financial framework for the 2021-2027 period comprises a number of 14 programs designed to finance actions in the tourism sector and the Recovery and Resilience Mechanism (RRM) provides Member States with the opportunity to finance investments and reforms, including in the tourism sector. Romania’s National Recovery and Resilience Plan approved by the Commission in September 2021 focuses, in particular, on digitizing services, increasing responsiveness and ensuring institutional resilience at national level. Furthermore, through the S.O.S. Romanian Tourism, the Alliance for Tourism (APT) presents us with two important objectives: helping tourism out of the critical state in which it currently is and resetting the entire hospitality industry, as well as the measures taken to achieve the proposed objectives.

Historical Review: Novel Therapeutics in the 1919 Influenza Epidemic

Many pandemic public health responses, including mask mandates and social restrictions, remain unchanged in the last century. There remains little robust research into the unintended socioeconomic effects of restrictions. International travel restrictions delayed the onset of the epidemic in Australia, but isolationism was eventually suspended and the pandemic emerged as travel recommenced. Specific therapeutics were sometimes bizarre and lacked therapeutic trials. Practitioners and companies seeking to profit from the pandemic remained a constant across the pandemic outbreaks, however the main form of therapies were elixirs and experimental vaccines.

Variations in respiratory syncytial virus activity following the relaxation of COVID-19 restrictions in Qatar.

Despite the relaxation of COVID-19 restrictions in Qatar in October-December 2020, the detection of RSV was reduced ∼25-fold compared with 2019. This dramatic decrease during the typical RSV season could be related to international travel restrictions.

COVID-19 in Africa: An Explorative Cross-Sectional Analysis of Twenty-One African Countries From January to June 2020.

Introduction: Africa has surprisingly recorded better gains in containing the coronavirus spread than countries with the better health indices, such as the USA and UK. The low rate of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) cases and death in Africa represents a puzzle with different biological and social theories such as low COVID-19 testing capacity, substantial young population, few old people, favourable climate, genetic admixture, infectious disease antibodies, and sound community health care systems proposed. We aimed to understand the COVID-19 preventive measures in a group of twenty-one systematically selected African countries that may explain the low burden of COVID-19 in Africa.Methods: Data (COVID-19, health, socioeconomic, and demographics indices) of twenty-one systemically selected African countries were retrieved from the various official country and multilateral organization sources such as Worldbank, and the United nations development Programme (UNDP). The extracted data were analyzed in three large groups: international travel restrictions, physical and social distancing, and movement restrictions (lockdown measures; curfews, partial or/and national lockdowns). Data cleaning, analysis (including Pearson correlation), and visualization were done with Microsoft Excel and Graph Pad Prism version 9 (https://www.graphpad.com/).Result: Southern Africa had the greatest number of cases and deaths within the period studied compared to East Africa, which was the least COVID-19 affected sub-region (in terms of COVID-19 cases and deaths). We observed that coronary artery disease death rate was highly correlated with COVID-19 death density (number of COVID-19 deaths/total population) and similarly observed a correlation between the number of cases and deaths and number of in-country arrivals, pandemic preparedness (health security index), COVID-19 containment, and health index (not correlated with deaths). Finally, we noted that the most effective preventive strategy was the 'use of a face mask'.Conclusion: Africa had fewer COVID-19 cases and COVID-19 related deaths. Our data shows that the rapidity and stringency of COVID-19 preventive measures and government policies, and the low level of tourism in Africa compared to other countries (i.e., low COVID-19 seeding rate) may have been contributory to these favorable statistics. We hope these findings impact how the preparedness for pandemics can be enhanced to decrease the burden of preventable deaths and morbidity.

Country-specific lockdown measures in response to the COVID-19 pandemic and its impact on tuberculosis control: a global study.

ABSTRACTThe objective of this study was to describe country-specific lockdown measures and tuberculosis indicators collected during the first year of the COVID-19 pandemic. Data on lockdown/social restrictions (compulsory face masks and hand hygiene; international and local travel restrictions; restrictions to family visits, and school closures) were collected from 24 countries spanning five continents. The majority of the countries implemented multiple lockdowns with partial or full reopening. There was an overall decrease in active tuberculosis, drug-resistant tuberculosis, and latent tuberculosis cases. Although national lockdowns were effective in containing COVID-19 cases, several indicators of tuberculosis were affected during the pandemic.

Changes in travel behaviors and intentions during the COVID-19 pandemic and recovery period: A case study of China.

The COVID-19 pandemic severely hit the tourism industry in China and worldwide. Chinese government adopted extensive nonpharmaceutical interventions (NPIs) to control it. COVID-19 has been well under control since April 2020 and China entered into a unique recovering period. The aim of this study is to examine how the COVID-19 pandemic changed residents' travel behaviors and intentions and investigate the theoretical factors associated with these changes during the pandemic and the recovery period. This study used a mixed-methods approach by combining quantitative surveys (N = 1,423) and qualitative interviews (N = 34). We extended the theory of planned behavior (TPB) to include other emerging factors in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic, such as risk perception, tourist trust, and charitable attitude. Our findings show that COVID-19 changed respondents' travel preferences in different ways, for example, tend to choose natural/outdoor/uncrowded attractions over cultural/indoor/crowded attractions. Second, respondents' domestic travel behaviors and intentions were positively associated with constructs in TPB, charitable attitude to contribute to the recovery of the tourism industry, tourists' trust in domestic COVID-19 control, and awareness of destinations' promotion strategies, while domestic travel intentions were negatively associated with risk perception. Third, concerns about the international COVID-19 control and travel restrictions were the two major factors affecting residents' intentions to travel abroad. Finally, we highlighted the management implications including implementing strict preventive measures while improving the effectiveness, increasing tourists’ trust, and adopting diverse marketing and promotion strategies.