A review of the environmental implications of the COVID-19 pandemic in the United Arab Emirates

Changes in Nutritional Habits and Lifestyles Associated With COVID-19 in Jazan, Saudi Arabia: A 2022 Cross-Sectional Survey

BACKGROUND

The COVID-19 pandemic impacted dietary habits and physical activity patterns, with some long-term consequences. This study evaluated the effects of the pandemic on adults' dietary habits and physical activity in Jazan and compared them to pre-pandemic.

METHODS

An analytical cross-sectional survey was conducted among conveniently selected 559 individuals in Jazan, Saudi Arabia, in February 2022 using a validated online questionnaire. Data was collected to assess changes in eating habits, food intake, and weight before and 21 months after lifting of COVID-19 curfew restrictions in the region. Chi-square and McNemar's tests were used for analysis.

RESULTS

The proportion of individuals consuming homemade meals decreased from 50.6% (n=283) before the pandemic to 46.5% (n=260) during the pandemic, while the proportion of participants consuming less than three meals per day increased from 42.2% (n=236) to 45.4% (n=254), and breakfast consumption decreased significantly from 58.1% (n=325) to 53.5% (n=299) (p = 0.033). There was an increase in the consumption of fast food from 10.7% (n=60) to 12.0% (n=67) and dining at restaurants from 18.4% (n=103) to 19.3% (n=108); however, these increases were not statistically significant compared to pre-pandemic rates. During the pre-COVID-19 period, 46.9% (n=262) reported engaging in physical activity one to three times a week, whereas this frequency decreased to 41.3% (n=231) during the pandemic (p = 0.017). In contrast, a significant increase was observed in the duration of computer usage as prior to the pandemic, 20.2% (n=113) reported spending more than five hours per day on the computer, while this proportion increased to 31.8% (n=178) during the pandemic (p < 0.001). Furthermore, a considerable proportion of both males and females, constituting over one-third (n=189) of the total sample, reported an increase in body weight.

CONCLUSION

The findings suggest that the adult population in the Jazan region of Saudi Arabia experienced significant lifestyle changes during the COVID-19 pandemic, including altered dietary patterns and a significant decline in physical activity. To mitigate potential adverse effects on future well-being, it is crucial to implement enduring initiatives promoting healthy lifestyles.

Spatiotemporal Dynamics of COVID-19 Pandemic City Lockdown: Insights From Nighttime Light Remote Sensing

The global COVID-19 outbreak severely hampered the growth of the global economy, prompting the implementation of the strictest prevention policies in China. Establishing a significant relationship between changes in nighttime light and COVID-19 lockdowns from a geospatial perspective is essential. In light of nighttime light remote sensing, we evaluated the spatiotemporal dynamic effects of COVID-19 city lockdowns on human activity intensity in the Zhengzhou region. Prior to the COVID-19 outbreak, nighttime light in the Zhengzhou region maintained a significant growth trend, even under regular control measures. However, following the October 2022 COVID-19 lockdown, nighttime light experienced a substantial decrease. In the central area of Zhengzhou, nighttime light decreased by at least 18% compared to pre-lockdown levels, while in the sub-center, the decrease was around 14%. The areas where nighttime light decreased the most in the central region were primarily within a 15 km radius, while in the sub-center, the decrease was concentrated within a 5 km radius. These changes in both statistical data and nighttime light underscored the significant impact of the COVID-19 lockdown on economic activities in the Zhengzhou region.

COVID-19, travel restrictions and environmental consequences

The component of human life that has been most significantly altered by the COVID-19 epidemic is travel. Due to the upheaval produced by the pandemic breakout, countries are becoming increasingly avaricious and are scrambling to stockpile vaccines. The world has been locked down to reduce/control the pandemic outbreak, driving countries to shut their doors to other people from countries. The recent pandemic has had a short-term, positive effect on the environment, but travel restrictions have caused problems for the common person and are expected to deteriorate more soon, necessitating longer quarantines, vaccination requirements, vaccine passports, and immunization certificates required by countries for safe travel. Thus, this study has three objectives. First, we investigate the impact of COVID-19 on travel and the environment, as well as the role that tourists play in the transmission of the virus. Second, we examine how countries are handling COVID-19 vaccines. Finally, we pinpoint differences in vaccination coverage.

Three Experimental Common High-Risk Procedures: Emission Characteristics Identification and Source Intensity Estimation in Biosafety Laboratory

Biosafety laboratory is an important place to study high-risk microbes. In biosafety laboratories, with the outbreak of infectious diseases such as COVID-19, experimental activities have become increasingly frequent, and the risk of exposure to bioaerosols has increased. To explore the exposure risk of biosafety laboratories, the intensity and emission characteristics of laboratory risk factors were investigated. In this study, high-risk microbe samples were substituted with Serratia marcescens as the model bacteria. The resulting concentration and particle size segregation of the bioaerosol produced by three experimental procedures (spill, injection, and sample drop) were monitored, and the emission sources' intensity were quantitatively analyzed. The results showed that the aerosol concentration produced by injection and sample drop was 103 CFU/m3, and that by sample spill was 102 CFU/m3. The particle size of bioaerosol is mainly segregated in the range of 3.3-4.7 μm. There are significant differences in the influence of risk factors on source intensity. The intensity of sample spill, injection, and sample drop source is 3.6 CFU/s, 78.2 CFU/s, and 664 CFU/s. This study could provide suggestions for risk assessment of experimental operation procedures and experimental personnel protection.

The lock-down effects of COVID-19 on the air pollution indices in Iran and its neighbors

Introduction

The COVID-19 restrictions have a lot of various peripheral negative and positive effects, like economic shocks and decreasing air pollution, respectively. Many studies showed NO2 reduction in most parts of the world.

Methods

Iran and its land and maritime neighbors have about 7.4% of the world population and 6.3% and 5.8% of World COVID-19 cases and deaths, respectively. The air pollution indices of them such as CH4 (Methane), CO_1 (CO), H2O (Water), HCHO (Tropospheric Atmospheric Formaldehyde), NO2 (Nitrogen oxides), O3 (ozone), SO2 (Sulfur Dioxide), UVAI_AAI [UV Aerosol Index (UVAI)/Absorbing Aerosol Index (AAI)] are studied from the First quarter of 2019 to the fourth quarter of 2021 with Copernicus Sentinel 5 Precursor (S5P) satellite data set from Google Earth Engine. The outliers are detected based on the depth functions. We use a two-sample t test, Wilcoxon test, and interval-wise testing for functional data to control the familywise error rate.

Result

The adjusted p value comparison between Q2 of 2019 and Q2 of 2020 in NO2 for almost all countries is statistically significant except Iraq, UAE, Bahrain, Qatar, and Kuwait. But, the CO and HCHO are not statistically significant in any country. Although CH4, O3, and UVAI_AAI are statistically significant for some countries. In the Q2 comparison for NO2 between 2020 and 2021, only Iran, Armenia, Turkey, UAE, and Saudi Arabia are statistically significant. However, Ch4 is statistically significant for all countries except Azerbaijan.

Conclusions

The comparison with and without adjusted p values declares the decreases in some air pollution in these countries.

Supplementary Information

The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1007/s40808-022-01528-x.