The objective of this study is to map vulnerability of Asian countries to the COVID-19 pandemic.

According to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) 2007 framework for natural hazards, vulnerability is a function of exposure, sensitivity, and adaptive capacity. From an extensive literature review, we identified 16 socioeconomic, meteorological, environmental, and health factors that influence coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) cases and deaths. The underlying factors of vulnerability were identified using principal component analysis.

Our findings indicate that the percentage of the urban population, obesity rate, air connectivity, and the population aged 65 and over, diabetes prevalence, and PM2.5 levels all contributed significantly to COVID-19 sensitivity. Subsequently, governance effectiveness, human development index (HDI), vaccination rate, and life expectancy at birth, and gross domestic product (GDP) all had a positive effect on adaptive capacity. The estimated vulnerability was corroborated by a Pearson correlation of 0.615 between death per million population and vulnerability.

This study demonstrates the application of universal indicators for assessing pandemic vulnerability for informed policy interventions such as the COVAX vaccine roll-out priority. Despite data limitations and a lack of spatiotemporal analysis, this study’s methodological framework allows for ample data incorporation and replication.

This study aimed to describe the impact of the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic on emergency department (ED) admissions for urgent diagnoses.

From January 1, 2019, until December 31, 2020, patients older than 18 years who attended the ED at University Hospital of Leuven (UZ Leuven, Belgium) were included. Urgent diagnoses selected in the First Hour Quintet were collected. The periods of the pandemic waves in 2020 were analyzed and compared with the same time period in 2019.

During the first wave of the pandemic, 16 075 patients attended the ED compared with 16 893 patients during the comparison period in 2019. The proportion of patients having one of the diagnoses of the First Hour Quintet was similar between the periods (4.4% vs 4.5%). During the second wave, 14 739 patients attended the ED compared with 18 704 patients during the same period in 2019; 5.6% of patients had a diagnosis of the First Hour Quintet compared with 4.3% of patients in the comparison period.

This study showed a decrease in the number of patients attending the ED during the COVID-19 pandemic. Further studies are needed to determine for which conditions patients visited the ED less.

The Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused many problems in the health sector. Effective and safe vaccines are the only tool to combat the COVID-19 disease. Researchers and regulatory agencies have made efforts to develop such vaccines and healthcare professionals were prioritized for the vaccination program as first-line care providers. Considering this prioritization, we aimed to assess the physicians’ perceptions regarding the side effects of the COVID-19 vaccine.

An interview-based study was conducted from May 5 May to November 5, 2021 (6 months) in a teaching hospital in the capital city of Islamabad, Pakistan.

Among the 200 physicians who agreed to participate in the interview, 74% were male. A total of 94% did not experience any side effects after receiving the COVID-19 vaccine, regardless of the type of vaccine; 6% experienced side effects. Furthermore, 90% of physicians were afraid of side effects due to the high number of vaccine doses.

Conclusively, physicians had a positive perception regarding the COVID-19 vaccine. Healthcare authorities and related departments must take precautions to ensure the effective and safe COVID-19 vaccine to change the perceptions of physicians who had a negative perception. This will not only reduce the reluctance among physicians regarding administering COVID-19 vaccine, but will also boost and facilitate the vaccination program for the general public as well.

This study assesses misconceptions about coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) vaccine and the factors associated with misconception among Jordanians.

A cross-sectional online survey was conducted. The survey was formulated on Google Forms, and was hosted on an online platform. These questions were created based on extensive review of online information about the vaccines. Frequencies and percentages (%) were used for categorical variables, while means and standard deviations (SDs) were used for continuous variables. Stepwise binary logistic regression was conducted to evaluate variables associated with participant’s misconception questions.

Of 1195 survey respondents who participated in the study, 41.3% had received the COVID-19 vaccine. The mean misconception score was (60.0 ± 19.1). The statement with the highest mean was “The vaccine hasn’t been tested on enough people” (3.6 ± 1.0). The statement with the lowest mean was “The COVID-19 vaccine includes a microchip to control us” (2.2 ± 1.1) in the conspiracy theory portion. Females, 18- to 29-age group, higher educational level, living in a city, the participants who took lectures about the COVID-19 vaccine and vaccinated participants had higher odds of being in the low misconception level group.

Targeted campaigns and vaccine safety information should be part of a broader health education campaign to alleviate vaccination safety concerns.

With the outbreak of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19), the workload of the Iran’s health-care system along with the Pre-hospital Emergency Service (PHES) increased significantly so that Iranian fledgling emergency system had never experienced such a crisis. With regard to the importance of the function of PHES as the front-line staff of Iran’s health system and its role in controlling the recent epidemic crisis, this study was conducted to identify the challenges of PHES function in the face of COVID-19 pandemic.

The study was conducted with qualitative approach through content analysis in 2021. Semi-structured interviews were used to collect data. Sampling was purposive and continued until data saturation. After 24 interviews, the data were saturated. The extracted codes were thoroughly prepared as a data pool. After encoding all available data, the related codes were categorized into a single theme. After extracting the themes, a network of themes, related to the research topic, was drawn, and then, the relationship between the themes was analyzed.

Data analysis undertaken for the qualitative study resulted in the identification of 4 main themes included: challenges related to facilities and equipment, living with uncertainty, professional and organizational capabilities, and burnout.

PHES personnel have an important and key role in providing care to patients during COVID-19 epidemic period. Individual and systemic challenges were among the most important issues in the experiences of these personnel. These challenges require organizational planning and special attention of health policy-makers to maintain the staff’s physical and mental health during the pandemic and the possible crises ahead.

To characterize bacterial infections and antibiotic utilization in hospitalized cancer patients with coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19).

Retrospective cohort study.

Tertiary cancer center in New York City.

Hospitalized cancer patients ≥18 years with COVID-19 between March 1, 2020, and May 31, 2020.

Patients were classified with mild COVID-19 (ie, with room air), moderate COVID-19 (ie, using nasal cannula oxygen), or severe COVID-19 (ie, using high-flow oxygen or mechanical ventilation). The primary outcome was bacterial infection rate within 30 days of COVID-19 onset. Secondary outcomes included the proportion of patients receiving antibiotics and antibiotic length of therapy (LOT).

Of 358 study patients, 133 had mild COVID-19, 97 had moderate COVID-19, and 128 had severe COVID-19. Of 358 patients, 234 (65%) had a solid tumor. Also, 200 patients (56%) had 245 bacterial infections, of which 67 (27%) were microbiologically confirmed. The proportion of patients with bacterial infection increased with COVID-19 severity: mild (n = 47, 35%) versus moderate (n = 49, 51%) versus severe (n = 104, 81%) (P < .0001). Also, 274 (77%) received antibiotics for a median of 4 days. The median antibiotic LOTs were 7 days with 1 infection and 20 days with multiple infections (P < .0001). Antibiotic durations were 1 day for patients with mild COVID-19, 4 days for patients with moderate COVID-19, and 8 days for patients with severe COVID-19 (P < .0001).

Hospitalized cancer patients with COVID-19 had a high rate of bacterial infection. As COVID-19 severity increased, the proportion of patients diagnosed with bacterial infection and given antibiotics increased. In mild COVID-19 cases, antibiotic LOT was short, suggesting that empiric antibiotics can be safely avoided or discontinued in this group.

In addition to risking their physical well-being, frontline physicians are enduring significant emotional burden both at work and home during the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic. This study aims to investigate the levels of anxiety and depressive symptoms and to identify associated factors among Bangladeshi physicians during the COVID-19 outbreak.

A cross-sectional study using an online survey following a convenience sampling technique was conducted between April 21 and May 10, 2020. Outcomes assessed included demographic questions, COVID-19 related questions, and the Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale (HADS).

The survey was completed by 412 Bangladeshi physicians. The findings revealed that, in terms of standardized HADS cut-off points, the prevalence of anxiety and depressive symptoms among physicians was 67.72% and 48.5% respectively. Risk factors for higher rates of anxiety or depressive symptoms were: being female, physicians who had experienced COVID-19 like symptoms during the pandemic, those who had not received incentives, those who used self-funded personal protective equipment (PPE), not received adequate training, lacking perceived self-efficacy to manage COVID-19 positive patients, greater perceived stress of being infected, fear of getting assaulted/humiliated, being more connected with social media, having lower income levels to support the family, feeling more agitated, less than 2 h of leisure activity per day and short sleep duration. All these factors were found to be positively associated with anxiety and depression in unadjusted and adjusted statistical models.

This study identifies a real concern about the prevalence of anxiety and depressive symptoms among Bangladeshi physicians and identifies several associated factors during the COVID-19 pandemic. Given the vulnerability of the physicians in this extraordinary period whilst they are putting their own lives at risk to help people infected by COVID-19, health authorities should address the psychological needs of medical staff and formulate effective strategies to support vital frontline health workers.