Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) screening stations set up by Iranian Red Crescent Society have been available for 17 d with the aim of identifying and treating people with coronavirus, reducing road trips, and sensitizing people to the problem. This study aims to investigate the challenges of the procedure.

A qualitative study was used to find the challenges of the COVID-19 screening centers. Volunteers, branch managers, and headquarter managers of the Iranian Red Crescent Society participated in this study applying snowball sampling. Data were collected by means of in-depth semi-structured telephone interviews in April 2020 after completion of the fever screening plan. All interviews were recorded and transcribed verbatim, always with prior permission of interviewees.

The interviews with 20 participants in the plan indicated 6 relevant challenges, including logistics, lack of planning, lack of coordination, legal challenges, mental health, and ethical challenges.

The results indicated that, although establishing fever detection centers in Iran was a rapid response to COVID-19, it had significant flaws in the structure and adversely affected volunteers’ and staff’s health and financial resources. Therefore, well-structured protocols are required for similar responses in the future.

The aim of this study was to assess the stigma associated with coronavirus disease - 2019 (COVID-19) among health care workers (HCWs) in Indonesia during the early phase of the pandemic.

A cross-sectional study was conducted in 12 hospitals across the country in March, 2020. A logistic regression was employed to assess the association between stigma and explanatory variables.

In total, 288 HCWs were surveyed, of which 93.4% had never experienced any outbreaks. Approximately 21.9% of the respondents had stigma associated with COVID-19. HCWs who were doctors, had not participated in trainings related to COVID-19, worked in the capital of the province, worked at private hospitals, or worked at a hospital with COVID-19 triage protocols were likely to have no stigma associated with COVID-19.

The stigma associated with COVID-19 is relatively high among HCWs in the early phase of the COVID-19 pandemic in Indonesia. Adequate dissemination of knowledge and adequate protection are necessary to reduce stigma among HCWs.

Countries are trying several policy options for decreasing the incidence and burden of the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19). One of these strategies is a lockdown, complete closure, to reduce the risk of distributing disease by means of social interactions. This study aimed to analyze the effect of a 3-week lockdown on the mortality and morbidity of COVID-19 in Iran.

Official daily data on COVID-19 incidence and death reported by the World Health Organization (WHO) were extracted from September 1, 2020, to January 14, 2021. Data were analyzed using interrupted time series analysis by means of STATA 14 software.

Lockdown resulted in a significant reduction in the daily death from COVID-19 in the short-term (β = −139; P < 0.01) and in the long-term (β = −12; P < 0.01). Moreover, lockdown in the short-term insignificantly (β = −21.58; P = 0.969), and in the long-term significantly (β = −317.31; P < 0.01) reduced the COVID-19 daily incidence.

The results showed that the lockdown has a significant effect on incidence and death numbers. Therefore, it could be a suitable short-term strategy for controlling the COVID-19 outbreak. On the other hand, its negative effects on households and businesses should be considered.

Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) has spread quickly all over the world. The number of studies in this field being performed and published is increasing day by day. The aim of this study is to analyze the publications in the field of COVID-19 with the help of bibliometric methods. After bibliometric analysis, the second aim is to investigate the relationship between the number of publications in countries and the number of total cases.

The data in the study were taken from the Web of Science (WOS) site. Analyses and mapping processes were performed using VOSviewer and SPSS package program. The words “COVID-19”, “Novel Coronavirus”, “2019-nCoV”, “SARS-CoV-2” were used as key words for analysis. The data include publications from 2019 to 2021 (January 10).

As a result of the study, a total of 38,080 publications were evaluated. It was determined that the countries with the highest number of publications on COVID-19 were China and the United States, and the country with the highest number of citations was China. Most of the studies in the field of COVID-19 have been conducted on General Internal Medicine and Public Enviromental Occupational Health. In addition, statistically significant relationships were observed between the number of publications and the number of total cases in terms of countries (r = 0.806; P < 0.001).

As a result, bibliometric analysis about COVID-19 can be useful for the future studies. It gives a general perspective of the studies.

To examine the effects of household preparedness on perceptions of workplace preparedness during a pandemic among all employees at the US Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) medical facilities.

The VA Preparedness Survey (October–December 2018, Los Angeles, CA) used a stratified simple random, web-based survey. Multivariate statistical analyses examined the effect of household preparedness on perceptions of workforce preparedness during a pandemic: institutional readiness; desire for additional training; and understanding their role and its importance.

VA employees totaling 4026 participated. For a pandemic, 55% were confident in their VA medical facility’s ability to respond, 63% would like additional training, 49% understood their role during a response, and 68% reported their role as important. Only 23% reported being “well prepared” at home during major disasters. After controlling for study-relevant factors, household preparedness was positively associated with perceptions of workforce preparedness during a pandemic.

Efforts to increase household preparedness for health care employees could bolster workforce preparedness during pandemics. Organizations should consider robust policies and strategies, such as flexible work arrangements, in order to mitigate factors that may serve as barriers to household preparedness.

The recent Covid-19 pandemic has burdened the healthcare facilities, especially in the presence of limited infrastructure. We aimed at applying a queuing model to the Covid-19 screening area so as to optimize the screening services and ensuring that no patient is refused the service.

The mean arrival time of patients, number of physicians, mean screening time and queue characteristics were observed and entered in the M/M/c/K queuing model using R programming to optimize the number of physicians required in the screening area.

Considering the mean arrival of 7 patients in 10 minutes and screening of 3 patients in 10 minutes by 1 physician, 2 physicians were assigned. At this capacity, the probability of saturation of the system was 15% with patient loss rate of 1.05 per 10 minutes. Queuing simulation with 3 physicians reduced the patient loss rate to 0.013 per 10 minutes and a saturation probability of 0.2%. However, an increase of arrival rate from 10 to 20 led to an early saturation of the system.

Queuing models offer an opportunity for the healthcare providers and hospital administrators to optimize patient care services, especially in critical areas with an ever-changing situation such as the current pandemic.

The present study aimed to give an overview of research publications on health system preparedness against viral infectious disease outbreaks.

A bibliometric method was implemented from 2001 to 2020. The studied pathogens were dengue, Ebola, influenza, Zika, Middle East respiratory syndrome (MERS), Severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS), and coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19).

The search query returned 501 documents. The growth of publications showed a sharp peak in 2020 for COVID-19 and 3 small peaks in 2006, 2009, and 2015 for SARS, influenza, and Ebola, respectively. Of the retrieved documents, 208 (41.5%) were on influenza, 164 (32.7%) were on COVID-19, and 83 (16.6%) were on Ebola. Countries in the region of the Americas (n = 221; 44.1%) returned the majority of the documents, while countries in Latin America and the African region returned the least. The United States (n = 197; 39.3%) had a leading role in this field. The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (n = 51; 10.2%) ranked first, followed by the Johns Hopkins University (n = 16; 3.2%). The Disaster Medicine and Public Health Preparedness journal (n = 21; 4.2%) ranked first. International research collaboration was relatively inadequate.

Research on preparedness against infectious diseases was episodic. Research collaboration needs to be prioritized for countries with a history of fatal outbreaks.

With the intention to try to contain the spread of the viral disease, several measures were taken in Argentina for long periods of time.

The lack of labor activity, social constraints, and a strong sense of helplessness, combined with a complex economic scenario with recession, inflation, and devaluation, led to the emergence of a dense climate of discontent.

After a second wave hit the country, several measures were reinstalled. The Argentine society, polarized in many aspects, was further divided between those who supported the re-establishment of strict measures to help prevent further infections and those who desperately claimed for the urgent need to return to work to sustain their livings.

The preexisting problems to which developing countries are usually exposed have been sharpened over the last year, determining a very complex scenario where every decision is important for the country’s future. An updated report of the current situation and its management in different countries is of vital importance regarding global health issues and may serve for feedback and decision-making.

Current standard practice for disaster response training is insufficient to prepare future responders. Interdisciplinary immersive education is necessary for disaster responders to react quickly to the devastating destruction, dangerous situations, and ethical dilemmas, while caring for survivors, families, and communities with limited resources. This study tests the effects of immersive emergency preparedness education on interdisciplinary college students.

Thirty-four college students attended a 3-day immersive disaster training event. Interdisciplinary teams were given 6 challenges to adapt and overcome: mass casualty; field hospital triage, treatment, and transportation; water rescue; high building rescue; search and rescue; and a water treatment. A pretest and posttest survey, Emergency Preparedness Information Questionnaire (EPIQ), was administered to all participants.

Statistically significant improvements in triage, biological agent detection, assessing critical resources, incident command, psychological issues, clinical decision making, and communication (range of P = 0.000–0.003). Improvement in clinical significance resulted in a change from limited knowledge to familiarity with the subject in all cases except isolation, quarantine, and decontamination.

Preparation and training of health care professionals need to include immersive disaster scenarios that create the experience of fatigue, psychological challenges, and physical stresses.

This study aims to evaluate the long-term impact of living in postdisaster prefabricated temporary housing on social interaction activities and mental health status.

A total of 917 adult residents in a coastal town, whose residences were destroyed by the tsunami caused by the Great East Japan Earthquake (GEJE), were enrolled for the assessment held 5 y after the disaster. They answered questions about their experience and consequence of living in prefabricated temporary housing after the disaster. Their present scores on 5 types of self-reported measures regarding the psychosocial or psychiatric status and their present and recalled social interaction activities were cross-sectionally collected.

A total of 587 (64.0%) participants had a history of living in prefabricated temporary housing, while the other 330 (36.0%) had not. The prevalence of social interaction activities significantly decreased after the GEJE. However, the experience of living in prefabricated temporary housing did not adversely affect the subsequent social interaction activities or mental conditions of the participants 5 y after the disaster.

Living in postdisaster prefabricated temporary housing may not negatively impact subsequent psychosocial conditions or social interaction activities 5 y later.