Current Response and Management Decisions of the European Union to the COVID-19 Outbreak: A Review

Updated Surveillance Metrics and History of the COVID-19 Pandemic (2020-2023) in Europe: Longitudinal Trend Analysis

BACKGROUND

In this study, we built upon our initial research published in 2020 by incorporating an additional 2 years of data for Europe. We assessed whether COVID-19 had shifted from the pandemic to endemic phase in the region when the World Health Organization (WHO) declared the end of the public health emergency of international concern on May 5, 2023.

OBJECTIVE

We first aimed to measure whether there was an expansion or contraction in the pandemic in Europe at the time of the WHO declaration. Second, we used dynamic and genomic surveillance methods to describe the history of the pandemic in the region and situate the window of the WHO declaration within the broader history. Third, we provided the historical context for the course of the pandemic in Europe in terms of policy and disease burden at the country and region levels.

METHODS

In addition to the updates of traditional surveillance data and dynamic panel estimates from the original study, this study used data on sequenced SARS-CoV-2 variants from the Global Initiative on Sharing All Influenza Data to identify the appearance and duration of variants of concern. We used Nextclade nomenclature to collect clade designations from sequences and Pangolin nomenclature for lineage designations of SARS-CoV-2. Finally, we conducted a 1-tailed t test for whether regional weekly speed was greater than an outbreak threshold of 10. We ran the test iteratively with 6 months of data across the sample period.

RESULTS

Speed for the region had remained below the outbreak threshold for 4 months by the time of the WHO declaration. Acceleration and jerk were also low and stable. While the 1-day and 7-day persistence coefficients remained statistically significant, the coefficients were moderate in magnitude (0.404 and 0.547, respectively; P<.001 for both). The shift parameters for the 2 weeks around the WHO declaration were small and insignificant, suggesting little change in the clustering effect of cases on future cases at the time. From December 2021 onward, Omicron was the predominant variant of concern in sequenced viral samples. The rolling t test of speed equal to 10 became insignificant for the first time in April 2023.

CONCLUSIONS

While COVID-19 continues to circulate in Europe, the rate of transmission remained below the threshold of an outbreak for 4 months ahead of the WHO declaration. The region had previously been in a nearly continuous state of outbreak. The more recent trend suggested that COVID-19 was endemic in the region and no longer reached the threshold of the pandemic definition. However, several countries remained in a state of outbreak, and the conclusion that COVID-19 was no longer a pandemic in Europe at the time is unclear.

Volunteering intentions during social crises: The role of considering the welfare of others and consequences of own behavior

In the current paper, we investigate how people with experience with volunteering in their lifetime intend to engage in hypothetical crisis volunteering in the future. We took into account two types of hypothetical social crises: a pandemic and a refugee crisis. We suggest that individual differences in considering the welfare of others (social value orientation) and consideration of future/immediate consequences play a role in the volunteer responses to crises. We also control for the willingness to volunteer in the proximal (a month) and distal (3 years) future, gender, age, and length of volunteer experience. We conducted two survey-based online studies in October 2023. We recruited N = 287 people for Study 1 (Poland) and N = 231 for Study 2 (Italy). Our results suggested that people who declare they want to remain volunteers intend to engage during social crises, but not necessarily in a proactive way. Furthermore, consideration of future consequences can result in proactivity, which was especially visible in the Italian sample. Consideration of immediate consequences can have twofold correlates - one might be the engagement in volunteering in case of a sudden emergency or refraining from the voluntary activity. These results can be used by people leading volunteer activities to predict what to expect from their volunteers and plan the volunteer recruitment and retention processes during crises.

Infection Risk Prediction in Healthcare Settings: Lessons from COVID-19 Contact Tracing

Objective

Contact tracing aids epidemic control by enabling early detection and isolation without overburdening healthcare systems despite potential challenges. This study aimed to evaluate the practical application of contact and risk assessment-based models in predicting SARS-CoV-2 infection following exposure among healthcare workers in a large tertiary public university hospital in Türkiye.

Materials and Methods

The study was designed as a retrospective cohort study, including contact tracing data from 3389 exposed healthcare workers from March 23, 2020, to October 22, 2021. Contact-based (mask use, contact duration and distance) and exposure risk-assessment-based (low, medium, high-risk) models with and without having symptoms were generated using logistic regression. SARS-CoV-2 infection was defined as having a positive SARS-CoV-2 RT-PCR test result. Adjustments were made to the models for demographic and occupational variables, previous infection, and vaccination. Model parameters were compared.

Results

Of 3389 exposed healthcare workers, 2451 underwent RT-PCR testing. Among those tested, RT-PCR positivity was 5.9% (144/2451). Lack of personal protective equipment use (odds ratio [OR]=1.64, 95% confidence interval [CI]=1.03-2.66) and ≥15 minutes of contact duration (1.89, 1.21-3.09) were significantly associated with RT-PCR positivity. In the risk-assessment model, being a high-risk contact increased the odds of RT-PCR positivity (OR=2.76, 95% CI=1.61-5.03). Adding the presence of symptoms to contact-based and risk assessment models improved model parameters (Akaike information criterion [AIC]: from 1086.1 to 1083.1; Tjur's R2: from 0.016 to 0.019, respectively).

Conclusion

The inclusion of being symptomatic improved the contact-based and risk assessment-based models. Institutions should be encouraged to incorporate symptom inquiries into risk assessment protocols in response to newly emerging respiratory virus epidemics. Institutions lacking the capacity for extensive contact tracing are recommended, at minimum, to track symptomatic exposed workers for epidemic control.

Unleashing the global potential of public health: A framework for future pandemic response

Public health emergencies, especially pandemics, need to be managed globally, and on several levels, emphasizing the importance of leadership, communication, and synchronization of measures, data, and management plans in contrast to the management of the Coronavirus-19 pandemic, which illustrated diverse strategies employed by various nations. This paper aims to review and discuss whether globalized diseases in a globalized world should be managed by globalized public health. Using a systematic literature search, followed by a non-systematic literature review, selected studies were grouped into topics, and analyzed, using content analysis to enhance the conclusive results. The results present a roadmap towards a re-envisioned framework highlighting key areas of focus: data-driven decision-making, robust technology infrastructure, global cooperation, and ongoing public health education, as part of a coordinated global response. This article reveals the weaknesses of current pandemic management systems and recommends new steps to further strengthen the management of future pandemics.

How R&D intensive firms react to the COVID-19 pandemic: Evidence from a quasi-natural experiment

Prior research suggests that R&D intensive firms are especially vulnerable during crises due to their narrow specialization, high adjustment costs, increased distress risks, and higher sensitivity to financial distress. This paper exploits the difference in the research and development intensity as a quasi-natural experiment to examine the impact of the coronavirus pandemic on firm performance. Our study finds that the adverse consequences of COVID-19 on firms' profitability have been less pronounced for R&D intensive firms. R&D intensive firms are also able to record more positive changes in cash holdings as a response to the COVID-19 pandemic. As a result, R&D intensive firms are less likely to rely on external financing and record a lower level of increase in financing. Our results further highlight the potential function of R&D investment as a panacea for firm's growth during economic downturns.

The IHI Rochester Report 2022 on Healthcare Informatics Research: Resuming After the CoViD-19

In 2020, the CoViD-19 pandemic spread worldwide in an unexpected way and suddenly modified many life issues, including social habits, social relationships, teaching modalities, and more. Such changes were also observable in many different healthcare and medical contexts. Moreover, the CoViD-19 pandemic acted as a stress test for many research endeavors, and revealed some limitations, especially in contexts where research results had an immediate impact on the social and healthcare habits of millions of people. As a result, the research community is called to perform a deep analysis of the steps already taken, and to re-think steps for the near and far future to capitalize on the lessons learned due to the pandemic. In this direction, on June 09th-11th, 2022, a group of twelve healthcare informatics researchers met in Rochester, MN, USA. This meeting was initiated by the Institute for Healthcare Informatics-IHI, and hosted by the Mayo Clinic. The goal of the meeting was to discuss and propose a research agenda for biomedical and health informatics for the next decade, in light of the changes and the lessons learned from the CoViD-19 pandemic. This article reports the main topics discussed and the conclusions reached. The intended readers of this paper, besides the biomedical and health informatics research community, are all those stakeholders in academia, industry, and government, who could benefit from the new research findings in biomedical and health informatics research. Indeed, research directions and social and policy implications are the main focus of the research agenda we propose, according to three levels: the care of individuals, the healthcare system view, and the population view.

The role of facilities management in fighting COVID-19 outbreak: Evidence from Malaysian public hospitals

The aim of this study is to provide a holistic review of the fight against COVID-19 in developing countries, particularly Malaysia. Specifically, the study aims to determine how facilities management delivery in public hospitals can be improved to ensure readiness in handling COVID-19 cases. We conducted a review of the literature and reliable media updates on COVID-19 and services management. A critical synthesis of COVID-19 information was conducted to scrutinise the technical aspects and highlight how facilities management can be improved to ensure hospital readiness in managing COVID-19 cases. The data and information used in the present study were collected up to the time of writing this paper, which leaves a room for further studies. Nonetheless, this study's recommendations are useful for understanding the present and future pandemics. This study is a first attempt to summarise the data on facilities management in relation to the COVID-19 pandemic in the Malaysian context. The study's findings are suitable for the developing countries in managing healthcare management practices in the fight against COVID-19. This study aims to highlight current issues in order to provide a more objective assessment of facilities management to ensure hospital readiness in handling COVID-19 cases.

COVID-19 in Europe: from outbreak to vaccination

BACKGROUND

COVID-19 is a pandemic of unprecedented proportions in recent human history. To date, the world has paid a high toll in terms of human lives lost, and on economic, financial, and social repercussions. In Europe, countries tried to mobilize all resources available to contain the COVID-19 effects, but the outcomes are diverse across countries. There have also been massive efforts geared towards finding safe and effective vaccines and to distribute them massively to the population. The main objective of this paper is to describe the COVID-19 prevalence in Europe. Secondly, it aims to identify epidemiological typologies allowing to distinguish the countries in terms of their response to the pandemic, and finally assess the effect of vaccination on pandemic control.

METHODS

The study covers 30 European countries: EU 27 in addition to Norway, Switzerland, and United Kingdom. Four epidemiological variables are analyzed at two distinct moments, at the end of 2020 and at the beginning of 2022: total number of cases per million, total number of deaths per million, total number of tests per thousand, and case fatality rate. In a second step, it uses a fuzzy approach, namely archetypal analysis, to identify epidemiological typologies, and positions countries by their response to the pandemic. Finally, it assesses how vaccination, stringency measures, booster doses and population age affect the case fatality rate, using a multiple regression model.

RESULTS

The outcomes unveil four epidemiological typologies for both periods. The clearest sign of change in the two periods concerns the case fatality rate that is found to be low in a single typology in 2020 but occurs in three typologies in 2022, although to different degrees. There is also statistical evidence of the positive impact of the primary vaccination on mortality reduction; however, the same does not hold for the booster dose and stringency measures.

CONCLUSIONS

The study shows that primary vaccination is the most effective measure to reduce mortality by COVID-19 suggesting that vaccination provides hope for an end to the pandemic. However, a worldwide access to vaccination is needed to make this happen.

Health Security, Quality of Life and Democracy during the COVID-19 Pandemic: Comparative Approach in the EU-27 Countries

The aim of this paper is to emphasize the role played by the social, economic and political variables in shaping models of sustainable healthcare systems and strategies able to support and improve the quality of life during and after the COVID-19 pandemic. The context of our research is represented by the medical and socioeconomic crises generated by the COVID-19 pandemic. The current pandemic negatively affects healthcare systems, quality of life and the global economy. In this respect, this paper aims to thoroughly scrutinize the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on the social and healthcare systems of EU countries, to analyze the impact of human development in the field of the Global Health Security Index and to estimate the relation between resilience and quality of life during the COVID-19 pandemic. The research design is quantitative, resorting to the use of both descriptive and inferential statistics, against the background of a long-term comparative approach to the respective situations in the EU-27 countries. Empirical findings are relevant for emphasizing the fact that human development and social progress are predictors for the dynamics of health security measures. Moreover, the quality of the political regime, particularly in the case of full and flawed democracies, is strongly related to a high level of resilience and could influence the perception of quality of life. All of these empirical results could prove valuable for scholars interested in understanding the relationships between democracy, healthcare systems and quality of life, and for political decision makers involved in the effort of reducing the negative effects of COVID-19 in EU-27 countries.

Evolution and control of the COVID-19 pandemic: A global perspective

We investigated the factors influencing the progression of the pandemic from a global perspective by using the Geodetector and Correlation methods and explored the pandemic response policies and effects in different countries. The results yielded three notable findings. First, empirical results show the COVID-19 pandemic is influenced by various factors, including demographic and economic parameters, international travelers, urbanization ratio, urban population, etc. Among them, the correlation between urban population and confirmed cases is strongest. Cities become the key factor affecting the COVID-19 pandemic, with high urbanization levels and population mobility increases the risk of large-scale outbreaks. Second, among control measures, School-closures, International-travel-restrictions, and Public-gathering-restriction have the best control effect on the epidemic. In addition, the combination of different types of control measures is more effective in controlling the outbreak, especially for Public-gathering-restrictions ∩ School-closures, International-travel-restrictions ∩ Workplace-closures, Public-transport-restrictions ∩ International-travel-restrictions. Third, implementing appropriate control measures in the first month of an outbreak played a critical role in future pandemic trends. Since there are few local cases in this period and the control measures have an obvious effect.

Non-pharmaceutical interventions during COVID-19 in the UK and Spain: a rapid realist review

The paper is located at the crossroads of two modern intellectual movements. The first, evidence-based policy, seeks to locate vital information that will inform and improve key policy decisions on such matters as population health, social welfare, and human wellbeing. The second, complexity theory, describes the nature of the social world and perceives human action as persistently adaptive and social institutions as incessantly self-transformative. The first assumes that policies and programmes can achieve sufficient control to meet specific and measurable objectives. The second assumes that social actions are sufficiently capricious so that the society never conforms to anyone's plans - even those of the most powerful. The unparalleled resources committed to control the unprecedented attack of the COVID-19 pandemic are the epitome of complexity. The long struggle to contain the virus thus constitutes an ideal test bed to investigate this paradigmatic split. The paper undertakes this mission - focusing specifically on the effectiveness non-pharmaceutical interventions and examining evidence from the UK and Spain.

The Protective Role of Mature Defense Mechanisms on Satisfaction with Life in the COVID-19 Era: A Moderated Mediation Analysis

The COVID-19 pandemic significantly influenced people’s lives, with non-negligible consequences for the perception of well-being. This study sought to examine the effect of anxiety, post-traumatic impairment, and mature defenses on life satisfaction during the COVID-19 pandemic. One thousand three hundred thirty-nine Italian individuals (30% male; 70% female; Mage = 34.70; SD = 11.83) completed an online survey enclosing the Satisfaction with Life Scale, State-Trait Anxiety Inventory—Form X3, Impact of event scale—revised, and the Forty Item Defense Style Questionnaire. To test the hypothesized relationship, data were analyzed by applying a moderated-mediation analysis, a regression-based approach. Results showed that the negative effect of anxiety on life satisfaction was partially mediated by post-traumatic impairment, with a significant moderation effect of mature defenses on the relationship between post-traumatic impairment and life satisfaction. Specifically, with higher levels of mature defenses, the effects of post-traumatic impairment on consequences of the COVID-19 emergency on well-being. Furthermore, the protective role of mature defenses in facing post-traumatic impairment was shown. Such data may have applicative implications in different contexts in a management perspective of the different pandemic phases, contributing to more effective positive strength-based preventive actions to also support positive healthy organizations.

Evaluation and Obstacle Analysis of Emergency Response Capability in China

Emergency response capability evaluation is an essential means to strengthen emergency response capacity-building and improve the level of government administration. Based on the whole life cycle of emergency management, the emergency capability evaluation index system is constructed from four aspects: prevention and emergency preparedness, monitoring and early warning, emergency response and rescue, and recovery and reconstruction. Firstly, the entropy method is applied to measure the emergency response capability level of 31 Chinese provinces from 2011 to 2020. Second, the Theil index and ESDA (Exploratory Spatial Data Analysis) are applied in exploring the regional differences and spatial-temporal distribution characteristics of China's emergency response capacity. Finally, the obstacle degree model is used to explore the obstacle factors and obstacle degrees that affect the emergency response capability. The results show that: (1) The average value of China's emergency response capacity is 0.277, with a steady growth trend and a gradient distribution of "high in the east, low in the west, and average in center and northeast" in the four major regions. (2) From the perspective of spatial distribution characteristics, the unbalanced regional development leads to the obvious aggregation effect of "high-efficiency aggregation and low-efficiency aggregation", and the interaction of the "centripetal effect" and "centrifugal effect" finally forms the spatial clustering result of emergency response capability level in China. (3) Examining the source of regional differences, inter-regional differences are the decisive factor affecting the overall differences in emergency response capability, and the inter-regional differences show a reciprocating fluctuation of narrowing-widening-narrowing from 2011 to 2020. (4) Main obstacles restricting the improvement of China's emergency response capabilities are "the business volume of postal and telecommunication services per capita", "the daily disposal capacity of city sewage" and "the general public budget revenue by region". The extent of the obstacles' impacts in 2020 are 12.19%, 7.48%, and 7.08%, respectively. Based on the evaluation results, the following countermeasures are proposed: to realize the balance of each stage of emergency management during the holistic process; to strengthen emergency coordination and balanced regional development; and to implement precise measures to make up for the shortcomings of emergency response capabilities.

How the COVID-19 Pandemic Affected the Functioning of Tourist Short-Term Rental Platforms (Airbnb and Vrbo) in Polish Cities

The article presents the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on urban tourism activity on short-term rental (STR) platforms in Central and Eastern Europe (CEE). It offers empirical evidence of how Airbnb and HomeAway (Vrbo) changed in Polish cities during the COVID-19 pandemic. A case study of Polish cities was also used to investigate what pandemic-induced scenarios of that impact are presented in the literature. In particular, the study identifies "loser" cities, in which the pandemic consolidated and deepened the decline in active STR volume, and "winner" cities, in which the volume and dynamics of the active STRs increased during the pandemic.

Raising Awareness of Hearing and Communication Disorders Among Emergency Medical Services Students: Are Knowledge Translation Workshops Useful?

OBJECTIVE

In numerous countries, emergency medical services (EMS) students receive curriculum training in effective patient-provider communication, but most of this training assumes patients have intact communication capabilities, leading to a lack of preparedness to interact with patients, who have communication disorders. In such cases, first responders could end up delivering suboptimal care or possibly wrong procedures that could harm the disabled person.

METHOD

A quasi-experimental design (pretest-posttest) was used to assess the knowledge of EMS students both before and after a translation workshop on how to deal with patients who have hearing and communication disorders during emergencies. Comparisons between pretest and posttest scores were examined using the Wilcoxon signed rank test. The level of knowledge scores was compared before and after the workshop.

RESULTS

The results indicated that EMS students' scores improved after the workshop. There was a 0.763 increase in the average score of knowledge level. The results of this study show that knowledge translation workshops are a useful intervention to enhance the level of knowledge among EMS students when interacting with hearing and communication patients.

CONCLUSIONS

Our results show that such training workshops lead to better performance. Communication is a vital element in a medical encounter between health care providers and patients at all levels of health care but specifically in the prehospital arena. Insufficient or lack of communication with a vulnerable population, who may suffer from various disabilities, has a significant impact on the outcome of treatment or emergency management.

Rethinking Outdoor Courtyard Spaces on University Campuses to Enhance Health and Wellbeing: The Anti-Virus Built Environment

Responding to the events surrounding the COVID-19 pandemic, this study explores how to improve health and wellbeing and reduce infections in outdoor open spaces on university campuses to maximize their potential as a response to future crises. The study identifies the relationship between human behavior (social) and the various physical and environmental elements of these spaces. A case study and mixed-methods approach were undertaken, comprising four modes of inspection: user analysis layer using questionnaires and observations to survey students’ needs and behavior; context analysis layer using space syntax and CFD to examine the space’s physical and environmental conditions; design solutions reflecting an understanding of virus transmission; and a performance analysis layer to test the performance of ‘anti-virus’ courtyards. The findings demonstrated that students are willing to use the open spaces that they used before the pandemic, at the same frequency. This indicates a need to redesign the current spaces to prevent the spread of viruses. The study highlights the social, physical, and environmental implications to be considered in designs for outdoor anti-virus spaces. It provides a comprehensive process for transforming outdoor spaces on university campuses into anti-virus spaces that meet users’ needs. These findings have implications for the designing and retrofitting of open spaces to reduce infection.

Spatiotemporal Changeability of the Load of the Urban Road Transport System under Permanent and Short-Term Legal and Administrative Retail Restrictions

In Poland, in 2018, the act on Sunday retail restrictions was introduced, changing citizen’s spatial mobility (altered patterns of transport behaviour related to shopping on a weekly scale). Moreover, the COVID-19 pandemic (from 2020) on transport behaviour during this time has had an impact, since people were encouraged to stay at home and limit their mobility to an absolute minimum. As a result, the main aim of the article was to identify spatiotemporal changeability of the load of the urban road transport system under permanent and short-term legal and administrative retail restrictions and to determine its spatial and temporal nature on the example of Łódź (a big city in central Poland) during 2018–2021. For that purpose, the authors used three types of source data, i.e., official governmental normative data (acts, ordinances, etc.), informative data (official pandemic announcements issued during ministerial press conferences, governmental social media content, etc.), and objective empirical data (induction loops). The pandemic restrictions imposed on top of the existing permanent retail restrictions were shown to distinctly shape the weekly distribution of traffic. In weeks with non-trading Sundays, the percentage of vehicle traffic on weekdays was substantially higher than on weekends, which was particularly noticeable during the first year of the pandemic (2020). Long-term observations have also shown that people began to plan their weekends differently upon the initial implementation of Sunday retail restrictions.

Urban Pandemic Vulnerability and COVID-19: A New Framework to Assess the Impacts of Global Pandemics in the Metropolitan Region of Amsterdam

This paper presents the concept of urban pandemic vulnerability as a crucial framework for understanding how COVID-19 affects cities and how they react to pandemics. We adapted existing social and environmental urban vulnerability frameworks to assess pandemic impacts and responses, identifying the appropriate components and spatial, environmental and socio-demographic variables of interest. Pandemic vulnerability depends on exposure, sensitivity and adaptive capacity features, which occur in different combinations in different parts of a city. The model was applied to the Metropolitan Region of Amsterdam (MRA) to create a map of pandemic vulnerability. This map differentiates between affected areas according to the types of vulnerability they experience, and it accurately identified the most vulnerable areas in line with real-world data. The findings contribute to clarifying the challenges brought by COVID-19, identifying vulnerability thresholds and guiding planning towards pandemic resilience.

Novel Insights in the Leadership in Business and Economics: A Post-Coronavirus Update

Our world is evolving at an incredibly enormous speed and what was impossible three years ago is now a reality. The concept of leadership and leaders has also undergone profound transformations. Moreover, the recent COVID-19 pandemic caused a digital surge in the ways economic life, business, or education are perceived or conducted. The pandemic proved that small and large businesses, industries, and the whole economies can be suddenly upended by massive technological shifts. Hence, there is a need for a theoretical research update in leadership in business and economics that would bring new insights into this topic and define its place within the context of Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Our paper presents the novel insights for the leaders and the leadership concept in business and economics from various approaches and angles of view in the light of the COVID-19 pandemic with a focus on sustainable leadership and organizational resilience. It aims at outlying the theoretical background of leadership in business and economics after the pandemic and bringing up interesting and recent leadership case studies from all around of the world. Moreover, this paper aims as sharing the valuable insights into what it means to be a sustainable leader in business and economics, why leaders are needed, and how to become one. The main criteria of this research and its instrumentation include both the theoretical discussion based on the literature review and analysis and the empirical analysis that supports these theoretical provisions. The paper features an empirical model that assesses how business and economic leaders are searching for new ways of work and personal development during and after the COVID-19 pandemic using the own data from the 400 respondents collected in the Czech Republic and Russia. We found that the pandemic enhanced the emotional creativity of business and economic leaders and made them to invest and engage more into using new digital technologies and fundamentally altering the old ways of managing and governing their respective companies and institutions. Our results might provide valuable food for thought both for academics working on various angles of leadership, as well as for entrepreneurs and businesspeople who want to receive recent updates on the topic of leadership to use them in their daily work.

Assessing Effectiveness of Humanitarian Activities against COVID-19 Disruption: The Role of Blockchain-Enabled Digital Humanitarian Network (BT-DHN)

The COVID-19 pandemic has affected more than 214 countries across the world, disrupting the supply of essential commodities. As the pandemic has spread, humanitarian activities (HAs) have attempted to manage the various situation but appear ineffective due to lack of collaboration and information sharing, inability to respond towards disruption, etc. This study aims to determine and provide insights into the critical factors that may enhance the effectiveness of HAs during the pandemic. A systematic literature review was undertaken to explore critical factors and validated by experts using the fuzzy–Delphi method. These were further assessed to identify the cause-and-effect relationship by means of the fuzzy decision-making trial and laboratory (DEMATEL) method. The results show that building a blockchain-enabled digital humanitarian network (BT-DHN) is the most significant factor during the pandemic. The use of digital platforms for sharing real-time information enhances the effectiveness of HAs. This study offers stakeholders, policymakers, and decision-makers the opportunity to consider these factors in strategic planning to deal with pandemic disruption.

ICU-Associated Costs during the Fourth Wave of the COVID-19 Pandemic in a Tertiary Hospital in a Low-Vaccinated Eastern European Country

The COVID-19 pandemic has been associated with a tremendous financial and social impact. The pressure on healthcare systems worldwide has increased with each pandemic wave. The present study assesses the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on healthcare-derived costs of critically ill patients during the fourth wave of the COVID-19 pandemic in a tertiary hospital in Romania. We prospectively included patients admitted to a single-centre intensive care unit (ICU) during the fourth wave of the COVID-19 pandemic. Median daily costs were calculated from financial records and divided in three groups: administrative costs, treatment costs and investigation costs. These were then compared to two retrospective cohorts of non-COVID-19 patients admitted to the same ICU during the same time interval in 2020 and 2019. Demographic data and the management of SARS-CoV-2 infection and of associated organ dysfunctions were recorded to identify risk factors for higher costs. Our results show that the COVID-19 pandemic has been associated with a 70.8% increase in total costs compared to previous years. This increase was mainly determined by an increase in medication and medical-device-related costs. We identified the following as risk factors for increased costs: higher degrees of lung involvement, severity of respiratory dysfunction, need for renal replacement therapy and the use of antiviral or immunomodulatory therapy. Costs were higher in patients who had a shorter duration of hospitalization. In conclusion, the COVID-19 pandemic is associated with increased costs for patients, and rapid measures need to be taken to ensure adequate financial support during future pandemic waves, especially in developing countries.

Does the Prosperity of a Country Play a Role in COVID-19 Outcomes?

OBJECTIVE

This study aims to clarify the association between prosperity and the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) outcomes and its impact on the future management of pandemics.

METHODS

This is an observational study using information from 2 online registries. The numbers of infected individuals and deaths and the prosperity rank of each country were obtained from worldometer.info and the Legatum Institute's Prosperity Index, respectively.

RESULTS

There is a combination of countries with high and low prosperity on the list of COVID-19-infected countries. The risk of the virus pandemic seems to be more extensive in countries with high prosperity. A Spearman's rho test confirmed a significant correlation between prosperity, the number of COVID-19 cases, and the number of deaths at the 99% level.

CONCLUSION

New emerging pandemics affect all nations. In order to increase the likelihood of successfully managing future events, it is important to consider preexisting health security, valid population-based management approaches, medical decision-making, communication, continuous assessment, triage, treatment, early and complete physical distancing strategies, and logistics. These elements cannot be taught on-site and on occasion. There is a need for innovative and regular educational activities for all stakeholders committed to safeguarding our future defense systems concerning diagnostic, protection, treatment, and rehabilitation in pandemics, as well as other emergencies.

COVID-19 Pandemic Implications for Corporate Sustainability and Society: A Literature Review

The paper revises the ample empirical and theoretical literature on sustainable organizational growth and strategic leadership relating to the critical aspects of the ongoing pandemic, including poverty, social responsibility, public health, and organizational and managerial innovation. Drawing from available COVID-19, management, and sustainable leadership publications released from 2020 to 2021, this paper considers influential studies exploring core business concepts, principles, philosophies, and activities for accelerating, stimulating, and nurturing social and corporate sustainability. The study analyzed the characteristics and interrelation of 133 articles through bibliometric and literature systemization techniques. We shed light on the significant influence COVID-19 has had on financial, operational, and psychological solvency and organizational health to elucidate expectations and implications for businesses worldwide concerning the long-term financial and functional impact of COVID-19. An overview of the relevant studies on the individual, organizational, and external factors relating to novel disease’s relation to sustainability are provided. We emphasize the need for digital transformation following the COVID-19 upheaval and throughout the upcoming years. Some of the generally employed techniques in response to adversity entail portfolio diversification, service delivery innovation, product redesigning, new market development, partnering with competitors and/or complementary service providers, synergizing with other stakeholders, and open innovation.

An evaluation of critical knowledge areas for managing the COVID-19 pandemic

Purpose

The ability to manage the COVID-19 pandemic is contingent upon the ability to effectively manage its heterogeneous knowledge resources. Knowledge mapping represents a great opportunity to create value by bringing stakeholders together, facilitating comprehensive collaboration and facilitating broader in-depth knowledge sharing and transfer. However, identifying and analysing critical knowledge areas is one of the most important steps when creating a knowledge map. Therefore, the purpose of this paper is to appraise the critical knowledge areas for managing COVID-19, and thereby enhance decision-making in tackling the consequences of the pandemic.

Design/methodology/approach

The methodological approach for this study is a critical literature review, covering publications on knowledge management, knowledge mapping and COVID-19. EBSCOhost, PubMed, Scopus, Science Direct, TRID, Web of Science and Wiley Online Library were searched for full text, peer-reviewed articles written in English that investigated on critical knowledge areas for managing the spread of COVID-19. After full screening, 21 articles met the criteria for inclusion and were analysed and reported.

Findings

The study revealed seven critical knowledge areas for managing the COVID-19 pandemic. These are cleaning and disinfection; training, education and communication; reporting guidance and updates; testing; infection control measures, personal protective equipment; and potential COVID-19 transmission in health and other care settings. The study developed a concept knowledge map illustrating areas of critical knowledge which decision-makers need to be aware of.

Practical implications

Providing decision-makers with access to key knowledge during the COVID-19 pandemic seems to be crucial for effective decision-making. This study has provided insights for the professionals and decision-makers identifying the critical knowledge areas for managing the COVID-19 pandemic.

Social implications

The study advances the literature on knowledge management and builds a theoretical link with the management of public health emergencies. Additionally, the findings support the theoretical position that knowledge maps facilitate decision-making and help users to identify critical knowledge areas easily and effectively.

Originality/value

This study fills gaps in the existing literature by providing an explicit representation of know-how for managing the COVID-19 pandemic. This paper uses an objective and qualitative approach by reviewing related publications, reports and guidelines in the analysis. The concept map illustrates the critical knowledge areas for managing the COVID-19 pandemic.

Telemedicine use during COVID-19 pandemics and associated factors among health professionals working in health facilities at resource-limited setting 2021

Background

Digitizing healthcare has been a potential solution for transforming healthcare service delivery in the era of COVID-19 pandemics. To limit and minimize the virus spread, telemedicine helps control and prevent the pandemic by delivering healthcare services over long distances using Information communication technology. The objective of the study was to determine the level of telemedicine utilization among health professionals in the era of the COVID-19 Pandemic and the factors associated with it.

Methods

An institutional-based cross-sectional study design was used to collect data from 845 healthcare professionals. A pilot study was conducted on 5% of the study participants before the actual data collection process. After completion, changes were made based on the pilot study results, and a Cronbach alpha value of 0.76 was obtained. Descriptive and binary logistic regression models were used. Variables with a P-Value of less than or equal to 0.2 from the bivariable analysis were entered into the multivariable analysis. The odds ratio, 95% confidence interval, and p-value less than 0.05 were used to interpret a significant association, Hosmer-Lemeshow goodness-of-fit test, and the multicollinearity test were used to assess the assumptions.

Result

64.2% of the respondents had good use of telemedicine during COVID-19 with a response rate of 87.2%. 507 (62.8%) were male, and 525(71.2%) reported by nearly threefold (AOR = 2.96, % CI: [1.54-5.76]), IT support staff in the health facility (AOR = 8.32, 95 %CI: [4.77-14.52]), ICT training (AOR = 4.15, % CI: [2.13-8.02]), the frequency of searching health information (AOR = 6.19, % CI: [2.12-18.07]), and social media used (AOR = 3.46, % CI: [1.43-8.32]) were found significantly associated with health professionals' use of telemedicine.

Conclusion

The majority of healthcare providers practice telemedicine to control and prevent the spread of the COVID-19 virus. However, the availability of the internet, the presence of IT support staff, ICT training, the frequency of searching for health information, and the use of social media were significantly associated with the level of telemedicine utilization. Initiatives for full implementation of telemedicine in the health facility and motivating the health professionals are needed to carry out their medical practice by providing training and improving internet access in health facilities.

Organizational Changes Needed in Disasters and Public Health Emergencies: A Qualitative Study among Managers at a Major Hospital

Most hospitals have a contingency plan, based on all-risks and all-hazards assessment principles. However, emerging threats and risks often necessitate a flexible approach to emergency management at several levels of a disaster response system, for example, in hospitals. Sweden, and possibly other countries, has limited possibilities of surge capacity in the management of large-scale disasters and emergencies, which necessitates a local/national partnership and a flexible local disaster and contingency plan. This study evaluates the opinions of a selected managerial group, both at operative and strategic levels, regarding possible changes in a major hospital’s contingency plan during the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. Semistructured interviews were conducted to explore the elements of surge capacity and an operational tool, consisting of command and control, safety, communication, assessment, triage, treatment, and transport. The results show a need to create feasible management methods that can be evaluated, establish clear leadership, put preparedness as a constant point on the highest managerial agenda, improve external monitoring, and create a regional coordinating center. Furthermore, the results emphasize the significant role played by the incident command system and qualified leadership to facilitate competent and crucial medical decision making, as well as to provide reliable communication, collaboration, and coordination in a multi-agency response system during dynamic and unexpected emergencies. These steps enable a constant connection between reactive contingency plans and the proactivity in continuous risk assessment and enhance the flexibility of the contingency plans.

Machine learning-based forecasting of firemen ambulances' turnaround time in hospitals, considering the COVID-19 impact

When ambulances’ turnaround time (TT) in emergency departments is prolonged, it not only affects the victim severely but also causes unavailability of resources in emergency medical services (EMSs) and, consequently, leaves a locality unprotected. This problem may worsen with abnormal situations, e.g., the current coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic. Taking this into consideration, this paper presents a first study on the COVID-19 impact on ambulances’ TT by analyzing historical data from the Departmental Fire and Rescue Service of the Doubs (SDIS 25), in France, for three hospitals. Because the TTs of SDIS 25 ambulances increased, this paper also calculated and analyzed the number of breakdowns in services, which augmented due to shortage of ambulances that return on service in time. It is, therefore, vital to have a decision-support tool to better reallocate resources by knowing the time EMSs ambulances and personnel will be in use. Thus, this paper proposes a novel two-stage methodology based on machine learning (ML) models to forecast the TT of each ambulance in a given time and hospital. The first stage uses a multivariate model of regularly spaced time series to predict the average TT (AvTT) per hour, which considers temporal variables and external ones (e.g., COVID-19 statistics, weather data). The second stage utilizes a multivariate irregularly spaced time series model, which considers temporal variables of each ambulance departure, type of intervention, external variables, and the previously predicted AvTT as inputs. Four state-of-the-art ML models were considered in this paper, namely, Light Gradient Boosted Machine, Multilayer Perceptron, Long Short-Term Memory, and Prophet. As shown in the results, the proposed methodology provided remarkable results for practical purposes. The AvTT accuracies obtained for the three hospitals were 90.16%, 97.02%, and 93.09%. And the TT accuracies were 74.42%, 86.63%, and 76.67%, all with an error margin of ±10 min.

Research on the Natural Hazard Emergency Cooperation Behavior between Governments and Social Organizations Based on the Hybrid Mechanism of Incentive and Linkage in China

Social organizations have become an important component of the emergency management system by virtue of their heterogeneous resource advantages. It is of great significance to explore the interaction between the local government and social organizations and to clarify the key factors affecting the participation of social organizations in natural hazard emergency responses. With the aim of exploring the relationship between the local government and social organizations, based on evolutionary game theory, the emergency incentive game model and the emergency linkage game model of natural hazard emergency responses were constructed. The evolutionary trajectories of the emergency incentive game system and the emergency linkage game system were described by numerical simulation. Meanwhile, the influence mechanism of government decision parameters on the strategy selection of both game subjects was analyzed. The results show that both governmental incentive strategy and linkage strategy can significantly improve the enthusiasm of social organizations for participating in natural hazard emergency responses. Moreover, they could encourage social organizations to choose a positive participation strategy. Nevertheless, over-reliance on incentives reduces the probability of the local government choosing a positive emergency strategy. In addition, we found that, when both game subjects tend to choose a positive strategy, the strategy selection of the local government drives that of social organizations.

An Assessment of Post-COVID-19 EU Recovery Funds and the Distribution of Them among Member States

The European Commission has launched numerous recovery plans for Member States to try to mitigate the damage caused by COVID-19. The most important element of this program is the Recovery and Resilience Facility (RRF), which is worth EUR 672.5 billion in loans and grants. Seventy per cent of the RRF grants will be distributed between 2021 and 2022, with the remaining 30 per cent in 2023. The allocation of grants for the period 2021–2022 has been made according to different socioeconomic criteria. In this context, the aim of our work is to assess the recovery policies jointly developed by EU countries and to analyze which of the criteria adopted for the allocation of the grants included in the RRF for the period 2021–2022 has been most decisive in the distribution of these funds. In addition, we also examine whether other health indicators directly related to the pandemic can also be related to the amount of funding that EU countries will receive in this period by carrying out regression analysis. Our results show that the countries that will receive more RRF grants are those with larger populations, Gross Domestic Product (GDP) per capita and higher unemployment rates. Furthermore, it is noted that health criteria, as well as those of a socioeconomic nature, may be relevant in the allocation of recovery funds. In this way, our results can be the start of a debate in the literature on whether the socioeconomic criteria adopted in the distribution of these funds have been appropriate. or whether other criteria, such as those of a health nature, should have been taken into account.

Investigating COVID-19 News before and after the Soft Lockdown: An Example from Taiwan

COVID-19 caused an unprecedented public health crisis and was declared a global pandemic on 11 March 2020, by the World Health Organization. The Taiwanese government’s early deployment mitigated the effect of the pandemic, yet the breakout in May 2021 brought a new challenge. This study focuses on examining Taiwanese newspaper articles regarding the government response before and after the soft lockdown, collecting 125,570 articles reported by three major news channels from 31 December 2019, to 30 June 2021, and splitting them into four stages. Latent Dirichlet Allocation topic modeling and sentiment analysis were used to depict the overall picture of Taiwan’s pandemic. While the news media focused on the impact and shock of the pandemic in the initial stage, prevention measures were more present in the last stage. Then, to focus on the government response indicators, we retrieved 31,089 related news from 125,570 news articles and categorized them into ten indicators, finding the news centered on the fundamental measures that were taken early and that were transformed into advanced measures in the latest and hardest period of the pandemic. Furthermore, this paper examines the temporal distribution of the news related to each indicator with the support of a sentiment analysis of the news’ titles and content, indicating the preparation of Taiwanese society to confront the pandemic.

Covid-19 and organisational development: important signs of a new pillar for sustainability

Purpose

The global pandemic has had a considerable effect on organisations’ performance and development and on the daily lives of the general population. This study aims to analyse the recent literature on the topics of Covid-19 and sustainability and proposes to rethink and redefine sustainability with the intersection of human health as a fourth sustainable pillar.

Design/methodology/approach

Using the Scopus and ISI Web of Science databases, 119 articles were analysed in detail and classified according to concepts and principles for achieving sustainable development, based on the Brundtland Report, 1987.

Findings

The results indicate a high number of publications in the social dimension, with a relevant proportion of studies in the health sector. This study allows us to conclude that all sectors of society are being affected by the pandemic. However, the enormous tension and the immediate impact felt by the health sector during the pandemic reflect directly on the population, and there are clear signs that in the medium and long term, instability and uncertainty in the environmental, economic and social dimensions will remain. In national health systems, monitoring, innovating in human resource management and investing in information technology can ensure organizations’ reliability and sustainability. The conclusion involves the suggestion of introducing health as a new pillar for sustainability to consolidate the basis and structure of the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Objectives. The use of fundamental concepts is necessary and must be aligned to reassess the results obtained in studies, in comparison with observational data.

Practical implications

The implications arising from the inclusion of health as a fourth pillar of sustainability are diverse. The need to build a new theoretical and conceptual framework for sustainability derives from the fact that health reflects the concern of many postulants in this field of practices. The determining or conditioning conditions of the observed effects of the pandemic by COVID-19, whether situated simply as factors and/or economic, environmental or social reflexes that precede them, requires a conceptual development that allows its approach, as a complex object, whose determinations are subject to variable degrees of uncertainty and diversity.

Originality/value

This study aims to redefine the concept of sustainability, considering that health has become a public health emergency of international interest. Health affects the supply chain, cash flow, interferes with the educational format and interrupts the workforce’s routine, among other aspects, showing the true nature of its importance and its impact in all spheres (economic, environmental and social).

Six Cs of pandemic emergency management: A case study of Taiwan's initial response to the COVID-19 pandemic

A review of the disaster literature indicates that emergency responses to pandemics are often understudied; the current COVID-19 crisis provides an important opportunity to improve awareness and understanding about this and other contagious and disruptive diseases. With this in mind, this study examines Taiwan's response to COVID-19 because it was successful in spite of a high probability of contagion. The paper first explores the assertion that cognition, communication, collaboration, and control are vital for effective disaster response; it then indicates the need to consider two additional Cs: confidence (trust of government's competency) and coproduction (public participation in disaster transmission prevention). The paper also conducts a qualitative descriptive study of the Taiwan government's response timeline with examples of each of these concepts in action. To further illustrate the need for the two additional Cs, survey data illustrate how public confidence serves as a pivot between government's COVID-19 response and citizen coproduction in COVID-19 transmission prevention.

Development, Implementation, and User Evaluation of COVID-19 Dashboard in a Third-Level Hospital in Iran

INTRODUCTION

The implementation of a dashboard enables managers to make informed and evidence-based decisions through data visualization and graphical presentation of information. This study aimed to design and implement a COVID-19 management dashboard in a third-level hospital in Mashhad, Iran.

MATERIALS AND METHODS

This descriptive developmental applied study was conducted in the second half of 2020 in three stages, using user-centered design methodology in four phases: (1) specification of the application context, (2) specification of requirements, (3) creation of design solutions, and (4) evaluation of designs. Data collection in each phase was performed through holding group discussions with the main users, nominal group techniques, interviews, and questioners. The dashboard prototype for the data display was designed using the Power BI Desktop software. Subsequently, users' comments were obtained using the focus group method and included in the dashboard.

RESULTS

In total, 25 indicators related to input, process, and output areas were identified based on the findings of the first stage. Moreover, eight items were introduced by participants as dashboard requirements. The dashboard was developed based on users' feedback and suggestions, such as the use of colors, reception of periodic and specific reports based on key performance indicators, and rearrangement of the components visible on the page. The result of the user satisfaction survey indicated their satisfaction with the developed dashboard.

CONCLUSION

The selection of proper criteria for the implementation of an effective dashboard is critical for the health care organization since they are designed with a high-tech and content-based environment. The dashboard in the present study was a successful combination of clinical and managerial indicators. Future studies should focus on the design and development of dashboards, as well as benchmarking by using data from several hospitals.

The Negative Impact of COVID-19 on Life Insurers

Understanding COVID-19 induced mortality risk is significant for life insurers to better analyze their financial sustainability after the outbreak of COVID-19. To capture the mortality effect caused by COVID-19 among all ages, this study proposes a temporary adverse mortality jump model to describe the dynamics of mortality in a post-COVID-19 pandemic world based on the weekly death numbers from 2015 to 2021 in the United States. As a comparative study, the Lee-Carter model is used as the base case to represent the dynamics of mortality without COVID-19. Then we compare the force of mortality, the survival probability and the liability of a life insurer by considering COVID-19 and those without COVID-19. We show that a life insurer's financial sustainability will deteriorate because of the higher mortality rates than expected in the wake of COVID-19. Our results remain unchanged when we also consider the effect of interest rate risk by adopting the Vasicek and CIR models.

Efficiency in the governance of the Covid-19 pandemic: political and territorial factors

BACKGROUND

The pandemic generated by Covid-19 has changed the way of life of citizens around the world in a short time, affecting all areas of society directly or indirectly, which is facing a global health crisis with different national responses implemented by governments. Several months into the pandemic, the first after-effects of Covid-19 are beginning to be felt by citizens, who are questioning the management carried out so far. In order to improve the performance of governmental decisions to reduce the impact of the pandemic during the coming months, we calculated the levels of efficiency in the management of health resources. In addition, we identify some country characteristics that may condition efficient management.

RESULTS

We obtained significant differences according to the geographical location of the country, with European and American countries being less efficient than Asian and African countries. Likewise, we can affirm that greater freedom of expression, a higher median age and an unstable economy and labor market reduce efficiency. However, female leadership of the government and greater compliance with the rule of law offer more efficient management, as do countries that derive more revenues from tourism.

CONCLUSIONS

These results provide an opportunity for political leaders to reflect on their management during these months of the pandemic in order to identify mistakes and improve the implementation of effective measures. It has been shown that using more resources does not mean managing better; therefore, policymakers need to pay special attention to the use of resources, taking into account the budgetary constraints of the public sector.

Behavioural changes in transport and future repercussions of the COVID-19 outbreak in Spain

COVID-19 (Coronavirus disease 2019) brought about a huge change in the behaviour and mobility of citizens in all parts of the world. This change was mainly a consequence of the strong measures of isolation and social distancing taken by the different governments in most countries through the world. The specific measures adopted in each country, in combination with the particular characteristics of the spread of the virus, generated differentiated, although similar, behavioural changes. This article presents the analysis of a survey carried out in Spain in March 2020, where citizens were asked about their mobility preferences before, during and after the lockdown due to the virus. In turn, questions were asked about the preferred modes of transport in each of the situations and the perception of safety on public transport in their current conditions. The mobility questions were differentiated between commuting to work or studies, shopping and leisure. The results show that public transport was the most affected transport mode, with a considerable increase in the use of the bicycle and walking trips. At the same time, changes were observed in the behaviour of shopping trips, including a considerable decrease on the use of large supermarkets. Citizens perceived great uncertainty in planning leisure trips, the consequence of which could be that a higher proportion of people not being able to carry out their planned trips.

Drugs that Might Be Possibly Used for Treatment of COVID-19 Patients

The drug development process for Coronavirus disease (COVID-19) is the research process to create a preventive vaccine or therapeutic prescription drug to relieve the severity of 2019-2020 (COVID-19). In different stages of preclinical or clinical research, several hundred special scientific research centers, research organizations, and health agencies have developed and tried enormous numbers of vaccine candidates and new drugs for COVID-19 disease. In order to identify new therapies against COVID-19, several clinical trials have been in progress worldwide.

Factors Affecting the Growth of E-Shopping over the COVID-19 Era in Hanoi, Vietnam

In response to insufficient understanding of the determinants of change in e-shopping behaviors during the COVID-19 pandemic in developing countries, this paper used the data from 355 respondents, collected in Hanoi during the social distancing period (April 2020), to explore the factors associated with shopping online more frequently (i.e., representing the growth of e-shopping) for five product types (food, medical products, clothing, electronics, and books) in Hanoi, Vietnam. The results showed that nearly 80% of the respondents engaged in e-shopping more frequently than they did before the outbreak of COVID-19. As regards shopping online more frequently in general (i.e., for at least one product type), females were more likely to do so. In-store shopping enjoyment and a decrease in income were a facilitator and a deterrent, respectively. Regarding specific product types, completely working from home had a positive association with more frequent e-purchasing for electronics. Fear of disease encouraged higher frequencies of e-shopping for food and medical products. Notably, the shortage of physical supply was not a determinant of buying any product type online more frequently. As for the implications of our findings, supporting and encouraging low-income shoppers, older persons, and females to engage in e-shopping is necessary to limit the detrimental effects of the pandemic on their lives. The growth of internet purchasing expresses a need to manage the development of urban delivery services, to limit the uncontrolled proliferation of motorcycles. E-shopping requires delivery to complete the online-to-offline process; therefore, protecting the health of delivery drivers to ensure the safety of the whole online shopping process would be necessary.

Public strategies to rescue the hospitality industry following the impact of COVID-19: A case study of the European Union

The COVID-19 pandemic has caused a "zero tourism" situation throughout the world with unpredictable consequences. Several authors analyzed the economic impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic during the second trimester of 2020, but none of them have specifically examined European Union countries and the joint actions taken to fight the pandemic. Using a case study methodology, this paper presents a literature review of the most up-to-date studies on the impacts of the COVID-19 global pandemic. Secondly, we specify the different public intervention measures implemented by the European Union in accordance with supranational governance theory and stakeholder theory. Finally, we set out the different COVID-19-related public rescue strategies for the tourism and hospitality sector at the individual level (for tourists), at the business level (for touristic companies) and at the destination level (for the European Union countries), from the perspective of stakeholders. The main contribution of our research is therefore to explore the public strategies to rescue the tourism and hospitality sector in the context of the European Union.

Overview of Safety Measures at Selected Airports during the COVID-19 Pandemic

The year 2020 was very challenging for the whole world, given the outbreak of the ongoing coronavirus-related pandemic, and was marked in particular by overcoming new hitherto unknown obstacles. For air transport, in particular, airlines stopped flying altogether and were forced to ground hundreds of planes worldwide involuntarily. Airports had to close their terminals for a long time, wholly suspend operations, and its resumption required significant organizational changes. This article summarizes the measures related to the COVID-19 pandemic adopted by airports to minimize the risk of spreading the disease. The article focuses on countermeasures and their implementation at selected airports in a specific time frame and airports’ behavior during a pandemic which varies depending on country and time of the year. The results demonstrated that steps being taken at airports include the use of face coverings or masks, social distance, enhanced cleaning and disinfection, or temperature checks and/or symptoms (fever, loss of smell, chills, cough, shortness of breath), RT-PCR (reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction) screening and data collection with health declaration. These measures have now become an essential standard for the operation of airports and can, therefore, be used to assess the level of airport safety achieved. In the final phase, the article evaluates the level of achieved airport safety based on the proposed scoring method.

The Feasibility of Implementing the Flexible Surge Capacity Concept in Bangkok: Willing Participants and Educational Gaps

The management of emergencies consists of a chain of actions with the support of staff, stuff, structure, and system, i.e., surge capacity. However, whenever the needs exceed the present resources, there should be flexibility in the system to employ other resources within communities, i.e., flexible surge capacity (FSC). This study aimed to investigate the possibility of creating alternative care facilities (ACFs) to relieve hospitals in Bangkok, Thailand. Using a Swedish questionnaire, quantitative data were compiled from facilities of interest and were completed with qualitative data obtained from interviews with key informants. Increasing interest to take part in a FSC system was identified among those interviewed. All medical facilities indicated an interest in offering minor treatments, while a select few expressed interest in offering psychosocial support or patient stabilization before transport to major hospitals and minor operations. The non-medical facilities interviewed proposed to serve food and provide spaces for the housing of victims. The lack of knowledge and scarcity of medical instruments and materials were some of the barriers to implementing the FSC response system. Despite some shortcomings, FSC seems to be applicable in Thailand. There is a need for educational initiatives, as well as a financial contingency to grant the sustainability of FSC.

Who Called Team Europe? The European Union's Development Policy Response During the First Wave of COVID-19

The COVID-19 pandemic is a critical juncture for global development. Under the label of "Team Europe", the EU has sought to mobilize rapid development assistance to support partners in addressing the impacts of the crisis, while promoting joined-up approaches among European actors to assert itself in a changing and competitive geopolitical context. This article assesses how substantive and process-oriented EU development policy norms are reflected in the Union's global COVID-19 response. Focusing on the EU's response during the first wave of the COVID-19 pandemic in the first half of 2020, the article shows that the EU's response to this extraordinary crisis consisted of a deepening of EU integration. In so doing, the EU emphasized process-oriented over substantive norms in its development policy.

New IT driven rapid manufacturing for emergency response

COVID-19, which is rampant around the world, has seriously disrupted people's normal work and living. To respond to public urgent needs such as COVID-19, emergency supplies are essential. However, due to the special requirements of supplies, when an emergency occurs, the supply reserve mostly cannot cope with the high demand. Given the importance of emergency supplies in public emergencies, rapid response manufacturing of emergency supplies is a necessity. The faster emergency supplies and facilities are manufactured, the more likely the pandemic can be controlled and the more human lives are saved. Besides, new generation information technology represented by cloud computing, IoT, big data, AI, etc. is rapidly developing and can be widely used to address such situations. Therefore, rapid response manufacturing enabled by New IT is presented to quickly meet emergency demands. And some policy suggestions are presented.

Comparing Face-to-Face, Emergency Remote Teaching and Smart Classroom: A Qualitative Exploratory Research Based on Students’ Experience during the COVID-19 Pandemic

The COVID-19 pandemic significantly disrupted traditional face-to-face teaching worldwide and forced education institutions to adopt new, online teaching formats to enable students to continue with their studies. This research focuses on students’ perceptions of three teaching different modalities: face-to-face (F2F), Emergency Remote Teaching (ERT) and Smart Classroom (SC), which were implemented in response to the restrictions enforced to combat the spread of COVID-19. A qualitative study based on two user experience techniques, Pocket Bipolar Laddering and Emotional Appraisal, was carried out on a group of second-year ICT engineering university students at La Salle Campus Barcelona. The former technique consists in identifying a maximum of three positive and three negative salient items, while the latter is intended to rate pairs of opposite feelings. In the SC format, saving time on travel to university was considered an advantage of online learning, while disadvantages included less effective instructor–student interaction, distractions when off-campus and teamwork issues. These shortcomings can be addressed by specific online teaching training to develop a more active form of learning and foment student participation. However, both ERT and SC modalities were considered effective solutions to cope with the social and mobility restrictions imposed during the pandemic.

Examining resilience of disaster response system in response to COVID-19

We examine the COVID-19 response in China by conceptualizing resilience from the complex adaptive system perspective, including a discussion of the factors contributing to the resilience of the disaster response system. Methodologically, a network-based model was employed to describe the disaster response system. In addition to a traditional network analysis, the dynamics network analysis was conducted to assess the evolution of the disaster response system with a time slice analysis. This study presents theoretical and practical contributions to the field of disaster management by utilizing the complex adaptive system perspective and investigating context-specific resilience of a disaster response system.

Implementing Public Health Strategies-The Need for Educational Initiatives: A Systematic Review

In the absence of a specific treatment or vaccines, public health strategies are the main measures to use in the initial stages of a pandemic to allow surveillance of infectious diseases. During the ongoing global pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19), several countries initiated various public health strategies, such as contact tracing and quarantine. The present study aims to conduct a systematic literature review to identify the presence of educational initiatives that promote the implementation of public health strategies before public health emergencies, with a special focus on contact tracing applications. Using Science Direct, PubMed, Scopus, and Gothenburg University search engines, all published scientific articles were included, while conference, reports, and non-scientific papers were excluded. The outcomes of the reviewed studies indicate that the effective implementation of public health strategies depends on the peoples' willingness to participate and collaborate with local authorities. Several factors may influence such willingness, of which ethical, psychological, and practical factors seem to be the most important and frequently discussed. Moreover, individual willingness and readiness of a community may also vary based on the acquired level of knowledge about the incident and its cause and available management options. Educational initiatives, proper communication, and timely information at the community level were found to be the necessary steps to counteract misinformation and to promote a successful implementation of public health strategies and attenuate the effects of a pandemic. The systematic review conducted as a part of this study would benefit the relevant stakeholders and policy makers and assist with effective designing and implementation.

Key Challenges to Sustainable Humanitarian Supply Chains: Lessons from the COVID-19 Pandemic

COVID-19 has had a major impact on health, economic, social, and industrial activities. It has disrupted supply chain management and affected the movement of essential supplies to a large extent. This study aims to identify and evaluate the challenges hampering sustainable humanitarian supply chain management (SHSCM). Twenty critical challenges to SHSCM are identified using a comprehensive literature review, and three strategies were developed. The challenges and strategies were verified using expert input. The challenges were evaluated using the neutrosophic analytic hierarchical process (AHP) method. The neutrosophic TODIM (an acronym in Portuguese for interactive multicriteria decision making) method was then used to select the best strategy. The findings reveal that facility location problems, short lead times for emergency supplies, spread of rumors, rapid emergence of new clusters, and doubt concerning the available remedy are five critical challenges in SHSCM during COVID-19. Public–private partnerships are identified as the best strategy in SHSCM. Finally, this paper discusses the implications to sustainable development goals in the post-COVID-19 pandemic era.