Quarantine Policy Research Articles

TRADE SECTOR CHALLENGES, OPPORTUNITIES AND STRATEGIES IN EAST JAVA PROVINCE DURING THE COVID-19 PANDEMIC

The Covid-19 pandemic is sweeping the world, and Indonesia is one of the countries affected. Indonesia is combating Covid-19 by converting its regional quarantine (lockdown) policy into large-scale social restrictions (PSBB) that are local in nature and vary depending on the severity of the province, district, or city. During the pandemic, the global economy and Indonesia both slowed. According to the government and strategic assessment institutions, Indonesia's growth will be low, if not negative, in 2020. Nobody knows when this pandemic will end. Various problems that have begun to emerge are the latest challenge for the government to improve the country's economic stability. Because of this, As a result, the East Java Provincial Government is attempting to implement a number of economic strategies in order to avoid a prolonged crisis, particularly in the industrial and trade sectors.

Extrapulmonary clinical manifestations of COVID-19: an umbrella review of meta-analysis

Since its emergence, the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19), compared to other coronavirus diseases throughout history, has generated large waves of infection with symptoms such as fever, chills, cough, fatigue, headache, and sore throat appeared. Despite many efforts and gains through meta-analyses of the symptoms of COVID-19 thus far, there has been a need of summarized concise information for clinicians. This review presents a summary of recent meta-analyses by categorizing the various extra-pulmonary clinical symptoms of COVID-19 according to organ systems. The article focuses on six groups: generalized symptoms such as fever (prevalence rate, 71% to 91%), fatigue (prevalence rate, 32% to 58%), and myalgia (20% to 33%), neurologic symptoms (headache [8% to 44%], dizziness [7% to 10%], confusion [5% to 11%], and impaired consciousness [2% to 7%]), psychiatric symptoms (anxiety or agitation [15% to 45%], post-traumatic stress disorder [20% to 41%], sleep disorder [35% to 82%], and depression [21% to 42%]), cardiovascular symptoms (chest pain [8% to 13%], palpitation [9.3%], arrhythmia [1.9%], arrhythmias [18.4%], angina [10.2%], myocardial injury [10.3%], myocardial infarction [3.5%], and acute heart failure [2.0%]), gastrointestinal symptoms (anorexia [20.0% to 27%], nausea or vomiting [5% to 10%], diarrhea [7% to 17%], and abdominal pain [4% to 9%]), and olfactory, gustatory/oral, and ocular symptoms (ocular symptoms [11.2%], olfactory dysfunction [38% to 53%], and gustatory dysfunction [7% to 37%]). The aim of this study is to provide clinicians concise information of the various extra-pulmonary clinical symptoms of COVID-19 and promote the understanding of administrators who set appropriate quarantine policies.

Impact of COVID-19 on the Global Tourism Economy

COVID-19 has paralyzed the world tourism sector. Travel restrictions (land, air, and sea), quarantine policies by the competent authorities, and physical restrictions are the main factors for cessation of tourism activities. The tourism sector that relies on individual mobility is supported by transportation modes so that when this is limited, it will have an impact on decreasing tourist visits, occupancy rates and the cancellation of a number of festivals and events that are routinely held until in the end this condition has an impact on tourism sector income. This study aims to obtain an overview of the impact of COVID-19 on the income of the tourism sector in a number of countries. Through literature studies, it is hoped that sufficient information can be obtained so that it can be used as a consideration for tourism managers in developing the concept of sustainable tourism in the future.

Replication package for: Optimal COVID-19 quarantine and testing policies

Replication package for: Optimal COVID-19 quarantine and testing policies

Immunization and Quarantine in the Light of the Prophetic Traditions with Reference to the UAE Quarantine Policies for Fighting COVID-19

Abstract Immunization is considered one of the most important means of protecting human beings against infectious disease. Allah, in His mercy, created means of immunization for the people. Immunization is more effective than any other means of controlling contagious diseases. Quarantine is also one of the most important means of curbing the spread of epidemic diseases in the contemporary era. The Prophet (PBUH) in several hadiths unequivocally explained the principles of immunization and quarantine. He prohibited people from entering the place affected by plague and prohibited the people of the place from leaving it. The aim of this paper is to study immunization and quarantine in the light of the Prophetic traditions with reference to the UAE’s COVID-19 infection control. The relationship between the two principles and the Prophetic traditions can thus be made clear. The research employs the analytical qualitative method using library-based research, examination of both primary sources of Islamic legislation (the Quran and the Sunna) and secondary sources (classical and modern literature of Muslim scholars). The research finds that there are a number of Prophetic traditions that mention medical immunization and quarantine. If put into practice, they would have a great impact in curbing the surge of any communicable disease and providing cure for other diseases.

Evaluation of the Performance of world Countries' Health Systems in the Face of Covid-19 in Respect of Vaccination Role

Evaluation of the Performance of world Countries' Health Systems in the Face of Covid-19 in Respect of Vaccination Role

A reflection on health and disease amid COVID-19 pandemic.

Coronavirus disease 2019 pandemic is persisting for more than a year and it's still far from being controlled. It is making a big impact not only on physical illness but also on mental and social aspects. In this situation, we need to reflect on current medical society's view of disease and health. The dominant paradigm in contemporary medicine is the reductionist view of disease and the biomedical model of health. As a result, the healthcare system seems to be more focused on virus eradication than on patient care. We need to look back on this position in view of humanities and ethics and broaden our perspective to an ecological view of disease and the sociomedical model of health. The quarantine and health care policy also needs to be re‐built with more focus on patient care.

Virus amongst the vegetables: Peruvian marketplaces, hygiene, and post-colonial indigeneity under gender-segregated quarantine

Gender and public markets have long been intertwined in Peru. The vast majority of market-sellers are women, and significantly this kind of work has been intimately related to women’s empowerment and agency within a deeply patriarchal society. However, with the arrival of COVID-19 the woman-centred space of the marketplace became compromised. While once a place of female empowerment, during the pandemic the market became seen as a dangerous ‘viral vector’, with 79% of Lima market sellers testing positive for Coronavirus during the first lockdown of 2020. Further still, a gender-segregated quarantine policy drove women to the markets en-masse; a policy that was withdrawn early due to its spectacular, although unsurprising, failure, causing a total inability to social distance on ‘women’s days’. As such, this paper investigates the extent to which the pandemic increased the ‘feminised burden of care’ to include deadly viral infection during the gender segregated quarantine. Applying an intersectional, post-colonial framework, the ‘feminised burden of care’ is approached as stratified along racial and class lines since markets are not spaces for all women. Furthermore, this paper will show how these intersecting structures of power that have persisted through time may become more visible and observable in times of crisis, such as through Peru’s short-lived gender segregated quarantine. With this in mind, it will be possible to suggest that the events of 2020 were more than just policymaker missteps, but a persistence and exacerbation of long-existing entangled structures of colonial and patriarchal powers. As such, it can be inferred that in an emergency, it is these power structures that were automatically adopted as the first port of call, and thereby perpetuate and strengthen them into the future.

Hansen’s Disease and Patient Writing in Colonial Taiwan’s Sanatorium, 1934-1944: The Affect of the Institution

In recent years, much attention has been given to people affected by Hansen’s disease who write about their experience of the illness and quarantine policies in Japan. Scholarship has been focused on “popular” writing, by authors who became relatively well-known, such as Hōjō Tamio (1914-1937). However, the treatment of a few exceptional male writers as representative of all patient experience erases the multiplicities of diverse patient experience. One literary coterie that has received no critical attention is the work produced by writers institutionalized in the Japanese colonial hospital in Taiwan, Rakusei Sanatorium for Lepers of the Governor-General of Taiwan (Taiwan Sōtokufu Raibyō Rakusei-in, today Lesheng Sanatorium). The colonial government opened this hospital in 1930, and the hospital magazine began publication in 1934. Rakusei-in was one of three colonial hospitals established by the Japanese government and it was the only one to have a small, active group of writers producing work in the Japanese language. This paper introduces writing by people diagnosed with Hansen’s disease and living in Rakusei-in as a site of affective communities, looking at the way residents negotiated their institutionalization and colonial status in the official hospital publication. Ultimately, I demonstrate that in colonial Taiwan, writing by those suffering from Hansen’s disease served to create an affective community of Hansen’s disease patients. They participated in the reproduction of the ideologies underpinning Japan’s imperial project, while at the same time creating a space for some negotiation of their own identities on the margins of empire.

No Difference in the Incubation Period of COVID-19 in Different Gender, Ages, and Epidemic Periods in South Korea

PurposeThe incubation period is an important epidemiologic characteristic of infectious diseases in determining the quarantine period. In South Korea, there still have been debates about the quarantine period of coronavirus 2019 (COVID-19). Furthermore, the differences in the incubation period of COVID-19 by age and gender are still not well understood.Methods & MaterialsWe collected data on COVID-19 cases published by the South Korean public health authorities. Using this data, we estimated the incubation period by fitting three different distributions (Weibull, gamma, and log-normal) by gender, age group, and the different epidemic periods of COVID-19. We divided our study into two epidemic periods (First epidemic wave: 28 January 2020 – 18 April 2020, Second epidemic wave: 19 April 2020 – 30 August 2020). We used the Wilcoxon test to assess for any significant differences between the incubation periods by gender, epidemic period, and age group. We selected the best-fit model by comparing the Akaike Information Criterion. All analyses were done in R version 3.6.1 and level of significance was set at p-value < 0.05.ResultsThe log-normal model was best fitted in the study. The estimated median incubation period using the log-normal model was 4.6 days (95% confidence interval: 1.19 - 1.34), and the 95th percentile was 11.74 days. There was no significant difference in incubation period between males and females (P = 0.42), as well as with the epidemic periods (P = 0.77).ConclusionThis study provides evidence for the median incubation period for COVID-19 of approximately 4.6 days. Our work brings out more evidence of the incubation period for COVID-19 and shows that it may be prudent to continue with the current 14-day quarantine policy.

Classification Schemes of COVID-19 High Risk Areas and Resulting Policies: A Rapid Review

The COVID-19 pandemic has posed a significant global health threat since January 2020. Policies to reduce human mobility have been recognized to effectively control the spread of COVID-19; although the relationship between mobility, policy implementation, and virus spread remains contentious, with no clear pattern for how countries classify each other, and determine the destinations to- and from which to restrict travel. In this rapid review, we identified country classification schemes for high-risk COVID-19 areas and associated policies which mirrored the dynamic situation in 2020, with the aim of identifying any patterns that could indicate the effectiveness of such policies. We searched academic databases, including PubMed, Scopus, medRxiv, Google Scholar, and EMBASE. We also consulted web pages of the relevant government institutions in all countries. This rapid review's searches were conducted between October 2020 and December 2021. Web scraping of policy documents yielded additional 43 country reports on high-risk area classification schemes. In 43 countries from which relevant reports were identified, six issued domestic classification schemes. International classification schemes were issued by the remaining 38 countries, and these mainly used case incidence per 100,000 inhabitants as key indicator. The case incidence cut-off also varied across the countries, ranging from 20 cases per 100,000 inhabitants in the past 7 days to more than 100 cases per 100,000 inhabitants in the past 28 days. The criteria used for defining high-risk areas varied across countries, including case count, positivity rate, composite risk scores, community transmission and satisfactory laboratory testing. Countries either used case incidence in the past 7, 14 or 28 days. The resulting policies included restrictions on internal movement and international travel. The quarantine policies can be summarized into three categories: (1) 14 days self-isolation, (2) 10 days self-isolation and (3) 14 days compulsory isolation.

SARS-CoV-2 seropositivity and subsequent infection risk: a prospective cohort study

ObjectivesThis aim of this study was to examine the relationship between severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) seropositivity and subsequent infection. DesignA cohort study design was employed. MethodsStratified random sampling was undertaken to identify individuals aged 10 years and above registered with Qatar's largest primary healthcare provider. A questionnaire was administered, and blood samples were collected and analyzed for immunoglobulin G antibodies against SARS-CoV-2 at baseline. Participants were followed up until March 31, 2021 (a 34-week follow-up period) for vaccination status and a positive polymerase chain reaction (PCR) test for SARS-CoV-2. ResultsA total of 2044 individuals participated in the study (97.2% of the planned sample). Of these, 185 (9%) were found to be seropositive at baseline. 450 individuals were vaccinated during the follow-up period — 246 with one dose and 204 with two doses. 86 (4.2%) individuals had a positive PCR test during the follow-up period, of which 80 (3.9%) were seronegative and six (0.3%) were seropositive (five undiluted and one with a titer ≥ 1:8). ConclusionsOverall, the findings suggest that reinfections are uncommon. Antibody concentrations potentially influence the risk of subsequent infection. Therefore, it might not be necessary to subject seropositive individuals to vaccination and the quarantine policies that apply to seronegative individuals.

Understanding how fast SARS-CoV-2 variants transmit from household studies

Understanding how fast SARS-CoV-2 variants transmit from household studies

Spatial and temporal changes analysis of air quality before and after the COVID-19 in Shandong Province, China.

Due to the COVID-19 pandemic outbreak, the home quarantine policy was implemented to control the spread of the pandemic, which may have a positive impact on the improvement of air quality in China. In this study, Google Earth Engine (GEE) cloud computing platform was used to obtain CO, NO2, SO2 and aerosol optical depth (AOD) data from December 2018-March 2019, December 2019-March 2020, and December 2020-March 2021 in Shandong Province. These data were used to study the spatial and temporal distribution of air quality changes in Shandong Province before and after the pandemic and to analyze the reasons for the changes. The results show that: (1) Compared with the same period, CO and NO2 showed a decreasing trend from December 2019 to March 2020, with an average total change of 4082.36 mol/m2 and 167.25 mol/m2, and an average total change rate of 4.80% and 38.11%, respectively. SO2 did not have a significant decrease. This is inextricably linked to the reduction of human travel production activities with the implementation of the home quarantine policy. (2) The spatial and temporal variation of AOD was similar to that of pollutants, but showed a significant increase in January 2020, with an average total amount increase of 1.69 × 107 up about 2.54% from December 2019 to March 2020. This is attributed to urban heating and the reduction of pollutants such as NOx. (3) Pollutants and AOD were significantly correlated with meteorological data (e.g., average temperature, average humidity, average wind speed, average precipitation, etc.). This study provides data support for atmospheric protection and air quality monitoring in Shandong Province, as well as theoretical basis and technical guidance for policy formulation and urban planning.

Analysis of Lifestyle and Consumer Attitude Towards Intention to Purchase a Personal Car During Pandemic

The COVID-19 pandemic is a new virus that allegedly originated in Wuhan, China, in 2019. This COVID-19 has spread rapidly, disrupting all sectors of life in various countries. The Covid-19 pandemic also impacted Indonesia's economic decline in 2020 and triggered the acceleration of the world recession. The policy of Large-Scale Social Restrictions (PSBB) and regional quarantine significantly impacted the delay in the distribution of goods, which resulted in employee housing and even layoffs. The fear of contracting COVID-19 triggers the intensity of the use of private vehicles as well as the intention to own a car. Lifestyle changes in traveling, especially the choice of the private car, are also influenced by the primary destination and distance traveled during the pandemic. But the economic pressure of the impact of the pandemic has become a substantial perception control that holds back the realization of intention to make a personal vehicle purchase decision. Although there has been an increase in the frequency of private vehicle use during the pandemic, in reality, the increase has not impacted private car sales. This is caused by the purchasing power of consumers, who are still hampered because of the pandemic. The government itself is aware that the automotive industry is an industry that has a significant contribution to 20 percent of the national Gross Domestic Product (GDP) and absorbs 1.5 million workers. This prompted the government to issue a stimulus in the form of policy relaxation to boost the productivity of the auto industry.

Analysis and Parametrical Estimation with Real COVID-19 Data of a New Extended SEIR Epidemic Model with Quarantined Individuals

During the recent COVID-19 pandemic, quarantine and testing policies have been of vital importance since the causative agent has been a novel virus and no vaccine was developed at the time. In this work, a new epidemiological deterministic model is proposed, analyzed, and discussed. Such a model includes quarantine periods of people with symptoms that have been tested positive, and it will trigger a trace of their close contact, who will be also tested and put in quarantine if the result is positive. Moreover, how the model parameters affect its stability is analyzed with the basic reproduction number R0. Since the COVID-19 outbreak in Spain (approximately 13/03/2020) until 25/04/2021, different restrictions have been applied. For discussion of a real case study, data have been gathered and used from the Spanish Autonomous Community of Cantabria to estimate the parameters and to see how the restrictions have affected their values. In the parameter estimation process, it has been assumed that the constructed model follows the structure of an ARX model. Finally, by considering that the gathered data are subject to certain errors, the paper discusses how to adequate the model usefulness for its use in fitting and processing data through an estimation mechanism involving the provided daily total and positive performed tests.

Building a system dynamics model to analyze scenarios of COVID-19 policymaking in tourism-dependent developing countries: A case study of Cambodia

To control the COVID-19 pandemic, various policies have been implemented to restrict the mobility of people. Such policies, however, have resulted in huge damages to many economic sectors, especially the tourism sector and its auxiliary services. Focusing on Cambodia, this study presents a system dynamics (SD) model for assessing and selecting effective policy responses to contain the spread of COVID-19, while maintaining tourism development. Policies targeted in this study include international and domestic transportation bans, quarantine policy, tourist-centered protection measures, and enterprise-led protection measures. Two types of scenario analyses are conducted: one targets each policy separately and the other combines different policies. Among all scenarios, quarantine policy is evaluated to be the most effective policy as it balances the containment of the spread of COVID-19 and support for tourism development. This study provides a new way of guiding COVID-19 policymaking and exploring effective policies in the context of tourism.

Appetite for risk in the C-19 policy environment.

Leadership deficits and poor communication about COVID-19 (C-19) science connect risk-shifting and vaccination hesitancy to safety issues for nurses and the general public. Nurses can be trusted, especially in these chaotic times, to provide trustworthy information on C-19. Publicly expressed gratitude to nurses does little to improve work environments made more precarious by C-19. Practical support may help retain nurses in the health system. Public trust in governments has dissipated during the pandemic. People are confused by inconsistent and contentious information and services. Publishing practices that produce low-quality publications undermine scientific information and impede the flow of high-quality research information. Science can advise on a pathway through the risks of C-19 but it is politicians and government officials who decide policy on whether to accept the science and set the level of acceptable risk to the general public. Problematic publishing and communication pathways for essential information contribute to public uncertainty and undermine trust in vaccines, public health strategies, and immigration and quarantine policies. Nurse safety needs to be central to policy deliberations that affect transmission or spending on infection risk reduction. Policies that put nurses at increased risk encourage those with a choice, to abandon unsafe health system employment. Research quality systems that improve research communication pathways to support practice are urgently needed. Nurses rely on research information sources for credible evidence to support their clinical practice. Risk-shifting is the unintended consequence of government policy on vaccination, immigration, international travel, quarantine and screening for C-19. Governments must accept their role in generating public mistrust of vaccines and not judge people's decisions made on the basis of information available. Political manipulation of C-19 data needs to be exposed to enable recovery planning.

Justice beliefs and cultural values predict support for COVID-19 vaccination and quarantine behavioral mandates: a multilevel cross-national study.

Understanding how individual beliefs and societal values influence support for measures to prevent SARS-CoV-2 transmission is vital to developing and implementing effective prevention policies. Using both Just World Theory and Cultural Dimensions Theory, the present study considered how individual-level justice beliefs and country-level social values predict support for vaccination and quarantine policy mandates to reduce SARS-CoV-2 transmission. Data from an international survey of adults from 46 countries (N = 6424) were used to evaluate how individual-level beliefs about justice for self and others, as well as national values—that is, power distance, individualism, masculinity, uncertainty avoidance, long-term orientation, and indulgence—influence support for vaccination and quarantine behavioral mandates. Multilevel modeling revealed that support for vaccination and quarantine mandates were positively associated with individual-level beliefs about justice for self, and negatively associated with country-level uncertainty avoidance. Significant cross-level interactions revealed that beliefs about justice for self were associated more strongly with support for mandatory vaccination in countries high in individualism, whereas beliefs about justice for others were more strongly associated with support for vaccination and quarantine mandates in countries high in long-term orientation. Beliefs about justice and cultural values can independently and also interactively influence support for evidence-based practices to reduce SARS-CoV-2 transmission, such as vaccination and quarantine. Understanding these multilevel influences may inform efforts to develop and implement effective prevention policies in varied national contexts.

COVID-19 and Anxiety in Perinatal Women.

Introduction: With a global pandemic like coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) spreading across borders, creating an extensive fear amongst all groups alike due to the increased morbidity and mortality, there is uncertainty in all patients affected. The government policy of quarantine of pregnant and postnatal women with COVID-19 in hospitals leads to ironic isolation and loneliness, mounting anxiety and fear of unknown outcomes. This study was undertaken to assess maternal anxiety in relation to COVID-19 and to observe factors influencing anxiety, drawing on anxiety scoring scales and a comparison of the levels of anxiety between antenatal and postnatal mothers. Methods: This cross-sectional descriptive study was conducted on 123 perinatal women with COVID-19 and their levels of anxiety were assessed on the basis of a pre-formed questionnaire, using the Coronavirus Anxiety Scale (CAS) and Generalized Anxiety Disorder-7 Questionnaire (GAD-7). The levels of anxiety between antenatal and postnatal mothers were compared based on these 2 scoring systems, using IBM.SPSS statistics software Version23.0.Results: Although both groups were having high scores of anxiety, antenatal women were found to possess statistically significant higher level of anxiety, compared to postnatal women, as determined by CAS. Conclusion: Better assessment on antenatal and postnatal women will lead to need-based counselling from healthcare workers during their hospital stay and better use of resources for the identification of the vulnerable group and their management.