The Italian Outbreak of COVID-19: Conditions, Contributors, and Concerns

Effects of the COVID-19 lockdown and recovery on People's mobility and air quality in the United Arab Emirates using satellite and ground observations

The stringent COVID-19 lockdown measures in 2020 significantly impacted people's mobility and air quality worldwide. This study presents an assessment of the impacts of the lockdown and the subsequent reopening on air quality and people's mobility in the United Arab Emirates (UAE). Google's community mobility reports and UAE's government lockdown measures were used to assess the changes in the mobility patterns. Time-series and statistical analyses of various air pollutants levels (NO2, O3, SO2, PM10, and aerosol optical depth-AOD) obtained from satellite images and ground monitoring stations were used to assess air quality. The levels of pollutants during the initial lockdown (March to June 2020) and the subsequent gradual reopening in 2020 and 2021 were compared with their average levels during 2015-2019. During the lockdown, people's mobility in the workplace, parks, shops and pharmacies, transit stations, and retail and recreation sectors decreased by about 34%-79%. However, the mobility in the residential sector increased by up to 29%. The satellite-based data indicated significant reductions in NO2 (up to 22%), SO2 (up to 17%), and AOD (up to 40%) with small changes in O3 (up to 5%) during the lockdown. Similarly, data from the ground monitoring stations showed significant reductions in NO2 (49% - 57%) and PM10 (19% - 64%); however, the SO2 and O3 levels showed inconsistent trends. The ground and satellite-based air quality levels were positively correlated for NO2, PM10, and AOD. The data also demonstrated significant correlations between the mobility and NO2 and AOD levels during the lockdown and recovery periods. The study documents the impacts of the lockdown on people's mobility and air quality and provides useful data and analyses for researchers, planners, and policymakers relevant to managing risk, mobility, and air quality.

Bibliometric Analysis of Post Covid-19 Management Strategies and Policies in Hospitality and Tourism

The strategic perspective of management policies gained utmost importance during the post-Covid era. The researchers are trying to introduce strategies that can help organizations cope with post-crisis destruction. Yet, the research on the topic is fragmented, mainly related to the hospitality and tourism industry. This manuscript aims to present scholarly research findings dealing with the post-Covid-19 management strategies in the hospitality and tourism industry from January 1, 2020, to July 28, 2021. These strategies can play an essential role in the survival and growth of the sectors. The study identified and acknowledged the core contributing authors, journals, countries, affiliation, corresponding authors through bibliometric, citation, and keyword analysis. It also conducted the co-occurrence analysis and reported three significant research streams and bibliometric coupling to identify four research themes for management strategies of the tourism and hospitality industry in the post-Covid era. With the help of an influential and conceptual framework, the study highlights the future challenges managers could face and suggests the possible area for reviewing and revising the existing policies by proposing future directions. Consequently, this study contributes to the current literature on post-Covid-19 management strategies and policies by developing the critical analysis of the extant literature and highlighting the understudy areas that future studies must explore to expand the scope of the research.

Assessing the ratio between new Covid-19 cases and new tests for Sars-Cov-2 in Italy by fractal investigation

AIM

processing the heterogeneous data on the Italian Covid-19 epidemic by fractal investigation on the trend curve of the ratio between new Covid19 cases/new Sars-Cov-2 tests.

METHODS

New cases of Covid-19 disease and new tests were calculated from raw data freely available on the Italian governing website. The effectiveness of Italian government Decrees aiming to obtain lock-down was assessed by fractal investigation. Self-similarity parameters of presumed fractal shapes obtained 6 days after each Decree were estimated, when possible. Self-organized criticality was also assessed to check for chaos involvement in disturbing the fractal shapes. Shapes were then compared and were used to estimate the number of new tests for Sars-Cov-2 that Italy would be able to perform.

RESULTS

The full lock-down changed the biocomplexity of the Covid-19 epidemic in Italy. If the biocomplexity of Covid-19 did not change after the lock-down, Italy should have been able to perform at least 25490 tests daily (±8940) on average, while real data show that a larger number of tests were done (p<0.001) (thereby obtaining the lowering of contagions). If the same biocomplexity was observed before full lock down, Italy would be able to perform 7088 tests daily (±5163) on average, while real data show that a lower number of tests were done (p=0.029) (thereby observing the worsening of contagions).

CONCLUSION

in case of heterogeneous data, fractal investigation would be prove useful for assessing and estimating trends.

COVID-19 lockdown: a rare opportunity to establish baseline pollution level of air pollutants in a megacity, India

This paper analyses air quality data from megacity Delhi, India, during different periods related to the COVID-19, including pre-lockdown, lockdown and unlocked (post-lockdown) (2018-2020) to determine what baseline levels of air pollutants might be and the level of impact that could be anticipated under the COVID-19 lockdown emission scenario. The results show that air quality improved significantly during the lockdown phases, with the most significant changes occurring in the transportation and industrially dominated areas. A pronounced decline in PM_{2.5 and} PM₁₀ up to 63% and 58%, respectively, was observed during the lockdown compared to the pre-lockdown period in 2020. When compared to 2018 and 2019, they were lower by up to 51% and 61%, respectively, dropping by 56% during unlock. Some pollutants (NOx and CO) dropped significantly during lockdown, while SO₂ and O₃ declined only slightly. Moreover, when compared between the different phases of lockdown, the maximum decline for most of the pollutants and air quality index occurred during the lockdown phase 1; thus, this period was used to report the COVID-19 baseline threshold values (CBT; threshold value is the upper limit of baseline variation). Of the various statistical methods used median + 2 median absolute deviation (mMAD) was most suitable, indicating CBT values of 143 and 75 ug/m³ for PM₁₀ and PM_2.5, respectively. This results although preliminary, but it gives a positive indication that temporary lockdown can be considered as a boon to mitigate the damage we have done to the environment. Also, this baseline levels can be helpful as a first line of information to set future target limits or to develop effiective management policies for achieving better air quality in urban centres like Delhi.

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION

The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1007/s13762-021-03142-3.

Assessing correlations between short-term exposure to atmospheric pollutants and COVID-19 spread in all Italian territorial areas

The spread of SARS-CoV-2, the beta coronavirus responsible for the current pneumonia pandemic outbreak, has been speculated to be linked to short-term and long-term atmospheric pollutants exposure. The present work has been aimed at analyzing the atmospheric pollutants concentrations (PM10, PM2.5, NO2) and spatio-temporal distribution of cases and deaths (specifically incidence, mortality and lethality rates) across the whole Italian national territory, down to the level of each individual territorial area, with the goal of checking any potential short-term correlation between these two phenomena. The data analysis has been limited to the first quarter of 2020 to reduce the lockdown-dependent biased effects on the atmospheric pollutant levels as much as possible. The analysis looked at non-linear, monotonic correlations using the Spearman non-parametric correlation index. The statistical significance of the Spearman correlations has also been evaluated. The results of the statistical analysis suggest the hypothesis of a moderate-to-strong correlation between the number of days exceeding the annual regulatory limits of PM10, PM2.5 and NO2 atmospheric pollutants and COVID-19 incidence, mortality and lethality rates for all the 107 territorial areas in Italy. A weak-to-moderate correlation seems to exist when considering the 36 territorial areas in four of the most affected regions (Lombardy, Piedmont, Emilia-Romagna and Veneto). Overall, PM10 and PM2.5 showed a higher non-linear correlation than NO2 with incidence, mortality and lethality rates. As to particulate matters, PM10 profile has been compared with the incidence rate variation that occurred in three of the most affected territorial areas in Northern Italy (i.e., Milan, Brescia, and Bergamo). All areas showed a similar PM10 time trend but a different incidence rate variation, that was less severe in Milan compared with Brescia and Bergamo.

Reforming Housing Policies for the Sustainability of Historic Cities in the Post-COVID Time: Insights from the Atlas World Heritage

In recent years, finding affordable housing has been a notable challenge for the residents of historic cities in Europe. This paper aims to develop a novel vision for improving housing policies in the post-COVID time to moderate the long-lasting issue of affordable housing in historic cities. The research was developed based on the findings of the Atlas World Heritage in 2019. In this project, five European Art Cities, namely Florence, Edinburgh, Bordeaux, Porto, and Santiago de Compostela, discussed their common management challenges through the shared learning method. Focusing on the case study of Florence and using a mixed-method, we collected data through the municipality of Florence, map analysis, and distribution of a questionnaire among the city residents. Then, we used inductive reasoning to explain how reforming housing policies in the post-COVID time could moderate the long-lasting issue of affordable housing in historic cities. The findings suggest that housing policies need to be supported simultaneously at both international and local levels. From the international perspective, associated cultural heritage organizations, like United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) and its advisory bodies and the World Tourism Organization (UNWTO), need to develop restriction policies that manage tourism flows in historic cities like increasing the airline taxation. At the local level, Florence needs decisive housing policies that ban the growth of illegal tourist accommodation in the city. However, the privilege of establishing new hotels can be awarded in suburban or rural areas to support sustainable tourism goals.

An index to quantify environmental risk of exposure to future epidemics of the COVID-19 and similar viral agents: Theory and practice

In the presence of the novel Coronavirus Disease (COVID-19) and other new viral agents, one of the fundamental problems in science is the evaluation of environmental and social weaknesses of cities/regions to the exposure of infectious diseases for preventing and/or containing new COVID-19 outbreaks and the diffusion of other viral agents that generate a negative impact on public health and economy of countries. The current monitoring of transmission dynamics of infectious diseases is mainly based on reproduction number (R₀) and fatality rates. However, this approach is a real-time monitoring of transmission dynamics for mitigating the numbers of COVID-19 related infected individuals and deaths. Reproduction number does not provide information to cope with future epidemics or pandemics. The main goal of this study is to propose the Index c (as contagions) that quantifies, ex-ante, the environmental risk of exposure of cities/regions to future epidemics of the COVID-19 and similar vital agents. This Index c synthetizes environmental, demographic, climatological and health risk factors of cities/regions that indicate their exposure to infectious diseases. Index c has a range from 1 (environmental and social weakness of urban areas leading to high levels of exposure to infectious diseases) to 0 (environment that reduces the risk of exposure to infectious diseases in society). The statistical evidence here, applied on case study of Italy, seems in general to support the predictive capacity of the Index c as a particularly simple but superior indicator in detecting the global correlation between potential risk of exposure of cities/regions to infectious diseases and actual risk given by infected individuals and deaths of the COVID-19. The Index c can support a proactive environmental strategy to help policymakers to prevent future pandemics similar to the COVID-19.

COVID 19- Perspective of an Italian Center

Italy has been hard hit by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 infection with more than 240,000 cases and 35,000 deaths. During the acute phase of the pandemic, the Italian government decided on the lockdown which lasted about 2 months. During this period, all surgical activities were limited to nondeferable procedures only. The sudden closure posed problems with the management of the heart surgery waiting which at that time included 135 patients. Among these were selected cases with the worst clinical characteristics that were progressively operated on. Compared with a similar period in 2019, the cardiac surgery activity of the "Lancisi Cardiovascular Center" in Ancona has been reduced by 65%. With pandemic mitigation, heart surgery activity has gradually resumed but many open questions remain. Above all, there is the problem of living with a low but persistent level of presence of the virus with the need to organize the activity to ensure patients and staff safety and an optimal level of performance.

Understanding COVID-19 diffusion requires an interdisciplinary, multi-dimensional approach

After COVID-19 initial diffusion in Europe in March 2020, research has suggested a direct correlation between environmental pollution and contagion dynamics (i.e., environment-to-human pollution), thereby indicating that mechanisms other than human-to-human transmission can explain COVID-19 diffusion. However, these studies did not consider that complex outcomes, such as a pandemic's diffusion patterns, are typically caused by a multiplicity of environmental, economic and social factors. While disciplinary specialties increase scholars' attitudes of concentrating on specific factors, neglecting this multiplicity during a pandemic crisis can lead to misleading conclusions. This communication aims to focus on certain limitations of current research about environmental-to-human COVID-19 transmission and shows the benefit of an interdisciplinary, multi-dimensional approach to understand the geographical diversity of contagion diffusion patterns.

Weathering the Cytokine Storm in COVID-19: Therapeutic Implications

BACKGROUND

Severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) recently emerged in Wuhan, Hubei-China, as responsible for the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) and then spread rapidly worldwide. While most individuals remain asymptomatic or develop only mild symptoms, approximately 5% develop severe forms of COVID-19 characterized by acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS) and multiple-organ failure (MOF) that usually require intensive-care support and often yield a poor prognosis.

SUMMARY

The pathophysiology of COVID-19 is far from being completely understood, and the lack of effective treatments leads to a sense of urgency to develop new therapeutic strategies based on pathophysiological assumptions. The exaggerated cytokine release in response to viral infection, a condition known as cytokine release syndrome (CRS) or cytokine storm, is emerging as the mechanism leading to ARDS and MOF in COVID-19, thus endorsing the hypothesis that properly timed anti-inflammatory therapeutic strategies could improve patients' clinical outcomes and prognosis. Key Messages: The objective of this article is to explore and comment on the potential role of the promising immunomodulatory therapies using pharmacological and nonpharmacological approaches to overcome the dysregulated proinflammatory response in COVID-19.