Search

The COVID-19 pandemic continues to wreak havoc on global operations and economies. Inadvertently, lock-downs and working from home have reduced the daily carbon footprints of inter alia transport and office buildings. A beneficial consequence of carbon footprint reductions is the ability to measure the differential demand of occupants, to benchmark the base load of buildings, and identify opportunities for efficiency improvements. In this paper we evaluate the change in energy demand in five public schools in South Africa with changes in occupancy due to the COVID-19-imposed lockdowns. We make recommendations to carry these savings into the everyday operation of the schools, and estimate the savings for forthcoming closures. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The outbreak of coronavirus disease (COVID-19) has posed many challenges to people's livelihood worldwide. This includes a negative impact on the food system and economic aspect of almost all countries. The spread of the COVID-19 pandemic came when food security is recognised as a complex problem, since it stands among numerous social problems that need to be addressed globally. The South African government has established the National Policy for Food and Nutrition Security to deal with food insecurity. The significance of this paper is to research the extent to which the governments have been responding to the consequences of the COVID-19 pandemic in South African. This study is qualitative and the case study research design was used to collect secondary data while textual analysis was used for data analysis. It is acknowledged that there is instability in the food supply as the poor people were forced to purchase expensive food from the supermarkets due to the closure of local flea markets and street vendors. As the lockdown regulations were lifted in South Africa, the key aspects of the findings reveal that the selling of unsafe food from the informal sector, which mostly supplies the poorest of the poor has threatened food security. The South African government must strengthen the policy framework that monitors the operation of the informal business to avoid the selling of unsafe food to poor people. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The unprecedented effects of Covid-19 have been felt in the whole world. The impact of the pandemic has drawn sharp fault lines of the world's inequalities. Covid-19 has changed the Global North and the Global South's social life, respectively. Whilst Covid-19 appeared to spread rapidly in certain parts of the world, and it seemed as if the pandemic would spare Africa. The state of world affairs has made African governments feel uncomfortable. Some African governments have started making pronouncements given the long-standing grievances about the region's status in global affairs. African governments have seen that the threats of the spread of Covid-19 demands collective and individual action. The geopolitical tussle leaves the developing countries stranded in the new economic order. Covid-19 has shaken the foundations of various institutions and states. Africa's profound failings are noticeable in public health, food security, governance and infrastructural development. Effective coordination of the Covid-19 crisis requires functioning state institutions, application of judiciary norms, and balancing power for the practice to adapt to the realities across the African continent. The second wave of Covid-19 requires the African Union to use this opportunity to integrate its economic pillars into the Africawide response strategy by using Regional Economic Communities (RECs) and the sub-regional blocs of African countries that have existed for decades. The paper concludes that various isolated efforts made by African countries to deal with the disease and the failure of the continent to adopt a coordinated effort in responding to Covid-19 remain a major challenge. It then recommends that there should be a coordinated approach that goes beyond the rhetoric espoused by South Africa's President Cyril Ramaphosa in his capacity as AU Chairperson. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study explores the utility of the I-poem methodology to investigate subjective well-being in children and adolescents with ADHD in South Africa during the COVID-19 pandemic. Subjective well-being in this population has been studied extensively via quantitative methodologies. In addition, narrative studies, discourse and theme analysis, participatory and visual method studies have also contributed to deeper understandings in the field. The current study seeks to contribute to knowledge creation within this field of non-numerical studies in an attempt to decentralise the voice of researchers and highlight the voices of participants. In the I-poem methodology, self-report ratings of children and adolescents with ADHD between the ages of 10 and 18 years old (n = 376) during the COVID-19 pandemic in South Africa was captured in an open-ended question. Data was analysed through the researcher's creation of themed I-poems. The findings delineate broad categories of positive, negative and neutral feelings of subjective well-being during the pandemic. Notions of subjective well-being are related to themes of home, school, social life, self-growth and reflection, experiences of change, rules, extra-curricular activities, concerns, loss, finances, the new normal, and emotions. The study illustrates the utility of the I-poem methodology to illuminate dimensions of well-being that may otherwise remain invisible. The study also amplifies the potential of the I-poem methodology to be used in conjunction with, and complementary to, other research methodologies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

It is expected that the coronavirus pandemic will exacerbate inequality in wellbeing compared to the pre-pandemic situation. However, there are theories (e.g., the Conservation of Resource (COR) theory) that acknowledge situation-specific lower wellbeing for individuals who typically have more resources. The argument is that perception of loss might occur differently across the socioeconomic spectrum such that individuals with higher socioeconomic status perceive that they experience more loss. Therefore, given the pandemic situation, it is possible that indicators of poor wellbeing (e.g., depression) becoming less concentrated among the poor, contrary to expectation. Given the above, we examine income-related inequality in self-assessed health and depressive symptoms in South Africa. This is done using both pre-pandemic data (i.e. National Income Dynamic Study) and data collected during the pandemic (National Income Dynamic Study-Coronavirus Rapid Mobile Survey). Consistent with expectation, we find that poor self-assessed health is not only disproportionately concentrated amongst the poor, but this concentration has increased compared to the pre-pandemic period. However, contrary to expectation, depressive symptoms have become less concentrated amongst the poor compared to the pre-pandemic period. We note that while there may be an alternative explanation for this change in trend, it may also be due to situation-specific lower wellbeing for individuals who typically have more resources. We argue that this has implication for tracking population health in a crisis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study applies a quantile cointegration model to investigate if COVID-19 outbreaks in the BRICS (China, India, Russia, Brazil, and South Africa) and the United States have a long-run equilibrium relationship with the dynamics of oil prices. (1) The standard cointegration models are unstable, indicating the possibility of structural breaks and nonlinearity in the relationship between the COVID-19 pandemic and oil prices; (2) The results of the quantile cointegration model suggest the COVID-19 pandemic and oil prices are nearly cointegrated over whole quantiles of the oil price distribution for the United States, Russia, South Africa, and Brazil. However, the long-run equilibrium relationship between the COVID-19 pandemic and oil prices in China is more likely to occur in the lower quantiles of the oil price distribution; (3) For India, the equilibrium link exists only across the two higher quantiles (0.7 and 0.8 quantiles) of the oil price distribution. Finally, our research has significant policy implications for the governments of the world's largest countries that are concerned about the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic outbreak on oil prices. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Adolescents living with HIV (ALHIVs) are considered a priority population in the fight against HIV, requiring dedicated services. The COVID-19 pandemic and subsequent disruptions deprived ALHIVs on antiretroviral therapy (ART) of the care and social support essential for treatment adherence and positive treatment outcomes. This study describes health managers' and healthcare workers' responses to the impact of COVID-19 on service delivery to ALHIVs in HIV treatment in the Cape Town Metropole. A descriptive qualitative design was employed, where semi-structured individual interviews (n = 13) were conducted with senior and programme managers as well as healthcare workers between April and October 2023. Inductive thematic analysis was performed using Atlas.ti version 23. Two main themes emerged from these interviews: "HIV service delivery to adolescents during the COVID-19 pandemic" and "Lessons learnt—the way forward". The de-escalation of health services at primary health facilities and the disruption of HIV services resulted in disengagement from care by ALHIVs, increasing mental health and treatment challenges. This warrants the restoration of psychosocial support services and the re-engagement of ALHIVs. The findings from this study can function as a guide for health systems and healthcare providers to navigate future pandemics to ensure that vulnerable populations such as ALHIVs continue to receive care and treatment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Severe acute respiratory tract infections (SARIs) has been well described in South Africa with seasonal patterns described for influenza and respiratory syncytial virus (RSV), while others occur year-round (rhinovirus and adenovirus). This prospective syndromic hospital-based surveillance study describes the prevalence and impact of public interventions on the seasonality of other respiratory pathogens during the coronavirus disease-19 (COVID-19) pandemic. This occurred from August 2018 to April 2022, with 2595 patients who met the SARS case definition and 442 controls, from three sentinel urban and rural hospital sites in South Africa. Naso/oro-pharyngeal (NP/OP) swabs were tested using the FastTrack Diagnostics® Respiratory pathogens 33 (RUO) kit. Descriptive statistics, odds ratios, and univariate/multivariate analyses were used. Rhinovirus (14.80%, 228/1540) and Streptococcus pneumoniae (28.50%, 439/1540) were most frequently detected in NP/OP swabs and in children <1 years old (35%, 648/1876). Among others, pathogens associated with SARI cases causing disease were influenza A&B, HRV, RSV, hCoV 229e, Haemophilus influenzae, Staphylococcus aureus, and Streptococcus pneumoniae. Pre-COVID-19, seasonal trends of these pathogens correlated with previous years, with RSV and influenza A seasons only resuming after the national lockdown (2021). It is evident that stringent lockdown conditions have severe impacts on the prevalence of respiratory tract infections. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Covid-19 epidemics raged around the world in years 2020–2022. The dynamics of the epidemics and their mortality varied by country depending on prevention, treatments, vaccination and health status of the population. Objective: The study compares Covid-19 morbidity and mortality in South-Africa and in France, two countries with similar population size and with reliable reporting systems, in order to better understand the dynamics and impacts of the epidemics and the effects of health policies and programs. Data and methods: Data on cases, deaths, hospitalizations, vaccinations were drawn from national statistics. Published data on cases and deaths were corrected for undercount. Results: Results show a different epidemiology in the two countries in the first three years of the epidemic (2020–2022). Incidence was higher in South Africa, and some 44% more people were infected by December 2022 than in France. Mortality and case-fatality were also higher in South Africa despite a favourable age structure. The age pattern of mortality showed higher values in South Africa among the young adults. Young women appeared somewhat disadvantaged in South Africa. Lastly, vaccination appeared to have had no effect on incidence, but a large effect on case-fatality in France. Conclusions: Despite about the same population size and the same crude death rate at baseline, South Africa exhibited more cases and more deaths from Covid-19 over the 2020–2022 period. Prevention strategies (lockdown and vaccination) appear to have had large impacts on morbidity and mortality. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article examines the potential for online activism to contest hegemonic neoliberal conservation models in South Africa, using the Covid-19 crisis as a window onto discursive struggle. National lockdown measures during the pandemic sent the vital tourism sector of an already fragile economy into deep crisis. Neoliberal and militarized conservation models, with their reliance on international travel, are examined as affected by a conjunctural crisis, the meaning of which was contested by a broad range of social actors in traditional and on social media. In 30 online news videos, racial hierarchies of land ownership and conservation labour geographies are reproduced and legitimated, as is a visual vocabulary of conservation as equivalent with guns, boots, and anti-poaching patrols. Here, hope is represented as residing in the increased privatization of public goods, and the extraction of value from these goods in the form of elite, luxury consumption. In a corpus of posts on Twitter corpus, on the other hand, significant counter-hegemonic resistance to established neoliberal conservation models is in evidence. In their replies to white celebrity conservationist Kevin Pietersen, critical South African Twitter users offer a contrasting vision of hope grounded in anti-racist equality, a rejection of any special human-animal relations enjoyed by Europeans, and an articulation of a future with land justice at its centre. The analysis supports the idea that in the "interregnum" between hegemonic social orders, pathways towards transformed futures may be glimpsed as "kernels of truth" in discursive struggles on social media. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Over the months of April and May 2021, South Africa has witnessed several outbreaks of highly infective avian influenza (H5N1) in different poultry farms. This came as a shock to a country that was already battling with the deadly COVID‐19 pandemic. The emergence of the virus has spurred import bans and massive culls in the poultry business. Local experts have also called for a restriction on the movement of people and cars in and out of their chicken farms. Employees have also been encouraged to shower in the mornings when they arrive at the farms and wear fresh clothes, as the flu spreads very quickly. In a country that is already facing the economic implications of the COVID‐19, this has the potential to cause a significant dent in the economy, as well as severely impact people's day‐to‐day life. Bird flu—also called avian influenza—is a viral infection that can infect not only birds but also humans and other animals. The threat of a new influenza pandemic has prompted countries to draft national strategic preparedness plans to prevent, contain and mitigate the next human influenza pandemic. This paper describes the South African burden, current efforts, and preparedness against the avian influenza virus. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

COVID-19 is affecting the functioning of most countries globally, creating a situation now described as the "new normal"--a time of unexpected educational change. The national lockdown, accompanied by the closure of educational institutions, brought economic hardship and deepened the digital divide between the rich and the poor. Educational institutions capable of transitioning to an online mode of delivery made that shift, while the majority of South Africa's schools remained excluded due to poverty and lack of technological infrastructure. The educational sector is at wits' end to find strategies to curtail the growing digital divide. This paper offers a digital resource mobilisation approach as framework to keep schools on the path to achieving the National Development Plan's aim of ICT capacitation. To consider developmental possibilities and respond to the digital exclusion of township schools, we asked the question: "What are the online teaching and learning experiences of school stakeholders?" Responses to this question assisted development of a digital resource mobilisation theory that is offered as a viable approach to digital inclusion and social change. Data were collected by telephonic interviews with three teachers, three learners, three school governing body parents, and one school principal. Based on the findings, recommendations for digital inclusion are suggested. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic remains a global security challenge for humanity. The COVID-19 pandemic, a non traditional security threat has exposed how regions respond to non traditional and emerging security threats. Similarly, the South African Development Community (SADC) region remains confronted with security ramifications due to the Covid-19 pandemic. The peace and security of the region has been disturbed due to an upsurge of conflicts in countries, such as South Africa (South Africa's unrests, protests and the Phoenix Massacre), Lesotho (Eswatini protests) and Mozambique's (Carbo Delgado insurgency), all amidst the coronavirus global pandemic. Further to this, SADCs human security challenges that have transpired and, in some cases, have been further exacerbated by the Covid-19 pandemic, include economic decline, job losses, food insecurity and the loss of life to mention a few. Prior to the Covid-19 pandemic, SADC Member Stateshave had to exercise greater regional pandemic management with diseases, such as Malaria, Human Acquired Immune (HIV/AIDs) and Tuberculosis (TB). SADCs efforts in combatting these human security threats have been progressive and notable. The study will analyse and build on the challenges, identified in Landsberg's (2012) study The Southern African Development Community decision-making architecture, where he suggests that at the heart of SADCs progress is the need for greater implementation of their set goals and aspirations. The study will analyse recent efforts, undertaken by the SADC region, in order to determine the successes and challenges, faced by the sub-regional bloc. It is analysing peace and security of SADC under the Covid-19 pandemic through an upsurge of conflicts in the region and the early securitisation and cooperation of the Covid-19 pandemic. The article suggests, SADC strengthened regional cooperation efforts, such as early warning systems and regional execution methods, have fostered advanced regional security outcomes in the region. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic has led to an unprecedented international emergency, resulting in a need to adapt the existing healthcare systems, in order to enable ongoing patient care despite the current disruptions. Telemedicine may be a viable option to continue hospital workflow, however there are barriers to its implementation. We set out to establish what barriers might exist and to assess the viability of teleclinics within the province KwaZulu-Natal (KZN), as perceived by doctors. Methods: This was a quantitative, observational, survey-based study targeted at medical doctors working in both the public as well as the private healthcare sector in University of KwaZulu-Natal (UKZN). Results: One hundred and forty-seven (147) responses were included. The majority (86%) of respondents felt that telemedicine could provide a useful means to continuing hospital workflow, however, only 47% believed that it was a viable option for their unit. The major barrier identified was a feeling that doctors would-be at-increased medico-legal risk. Only 38.4% of doctors were familiar with the Health Professions Council of South Africa (HPCSA) guidelines on telemedicine usage. Other major barriers included: doctors feeling uncomfortable with not seeing a patient in person or not being able to perform a thorough physical examination. Other reasons identified as potential barriers were doctors foreseeing difficulty in accessing patient medical records and the absence of available systems to order investigations without the patient being physically present. Conclusion: Telemedicine is currently not widely utilised in KZN; although most doctors were of the opinion that it could be a useful tool in order to continue the workflow during the pandemic. The major barrier identified were issues surrounding medico-legal coverage. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: In this paper, researcher describe how the educational innovations and creativity affects the efficiency and performance of the Universities in South Africa in their bid to cope with challenges posed by the COVID-19 pandemic since the beginning of the 2020 academic year. Method: The researcher used the cross-sectional research design. The data was collected through a survey with the help of a well-developed questionnaire. Respondents were the employees of university of Johannesburg South Africa selected through a simple random sampling technique. A framework of hypotheses was prepared to establish the relationships between the variables Creativity, Efficiency, Performance and Innovation. SEM-PLS was used for the analysis of data. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

COVID-19, which originated in Wuhan, China, 2 years ago, became a pandemic, that continues to this day. The Journal of Disaster Research (JDR) edited a special issue, "Special Issue on COVID-19 and Historical Pandemics" at the end of 2020 and an electronic version of the issue was published in January 2021 (JDR Vol.16, No.1, pp. 1-117). Even though one year has passed, life has not yet returned to normal due to the continued spread of COVID-19. Although the percentage of the general public that has been vaccinated continues to increase and various drugs and treatments have been developed, the number of COVID-19 cases also continues to increase. A huge number of COVID-19 cases have been reported, especially in Europe and the Americas. Accordingly, we planned to publish Special Issue Part 2 and called for papers. This Special Issue Part 2 includes 18 manuscripts, which deal with general epidemiology, effects on socioeconomic or educational areas, and clinical medicine, including vaccines and medical treatments. The virus spike protein plays an important role in its intrusion into human cells and the onset of COVID-19 infection. Although SARS-CoV-2 (the pathogenic virus of COVID-19) originated in Wuhan, China, various variant strains with mutation in gene coding in the spike protein have appeared in multiple countries. The WHO classifies these variants into the categories of VOC (variant of concern), VOI (variant of interest), or VUM (variant under monitoring). The definitions of VOC and VOI are as follows. VOC: "A SARS-CoV-2 variant that meets the definition of a VOI and, through a comparative assessment, has been demonstrated to be associated with one or more changes in the degree of global public health significance." VOI: "Increase in transmissibility or detrimental change in COVID-19 epidemiology, increase in virulence or change in clinical disease presentation, or decrease in effectiveness of public health and social measures or available diagnostics, vaccines and therapeutics." The WHO uses Greek letters designating the variants. Accordingly as they have appeared, variants have been designated as alpha (α: the UK variant), beta (β: the South Africa variant), and delta (δ: the Indian variant). After the deadline for the manuscript of this special issue, a new variant, omicron (o) originated in South Africa and Botswana, and it immediately began spreading worldwide. Unfortunately, it was impossible to include the manuscript on the omicron variant in this Special Issue Part 2, as the deadline had already passed. As COVID-19 continues to spread, the JDR will plan to edit Part 3 of this COVID-19 special issue. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The COVID‐19 pandemic led many governments to implement lockdown regulations to curb the spread of the virus. Though lockdowns do minimise the physical damage caused by the virus, there may also be substantial damage to population well‐being. Using a pooled data set, we analyse the relationship between a mandatory lockdown and happiness in three diverse countries: South Africa, New Zealand and Australia. These countries differ amongst others in terms of lockdown regulations and duration. The primary aim is to determine, whether a lockdown is negatively associated with happiness, notwithstanding the characteristics of a country or the strictness of the lockdown regulations. Second, we compare the effect size of the lockdown on happiness between these countries. We use Difference‐in‐Difference estimations to determine the association between lockdown and happiness and a Least Squares Dummy Variable estimation to study the heterogeneity in the effect size of the lockdown by country. Our results show that a lockdown is associated with a decline in happiness, regardless of the characteristics of the country or the type and duration of its lockdown regulations. Furthermore, the effect size differs between countries in the sense that the more stringent the stay‐at‐home regulations are, the greater it seems to be. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Since the first reported case of a novel corona (COVID-19) outbreak in Hubei province, China, in December 2019, the COVID-19 cases have since then escalated in China and distributed to all the five continents, posing serious health burden and economic challenges to the global world. Consequently, the World Health Organisation (WHO) declared it a global pandemic. The South Africa government, therefore, implemented a nationwide lockdown which was subsequently extended to curb the spread of the virus. However, due to the strict measures restricting human movements and economic activities, this poses serious economic challenges because most of the local businesses were closed down, which greatly reduced the GDP contribution of the local market. The impact of the closed down as a result of the lockdown especially affected the informal sector and unregistered businesses. In light of this, this study tries to understand the challenging impact of Covid-19 on South Africa's economy and government's response as well as to examine the survival level of small businesses in line with the unemployment rate. This paper is qualitative and data were primarily collected through secondary sources. Findings show that only corporate business owned by the rich and privileged remained open under the banner of offering essential services while informal small businesses were forced to shut down. It also finds that the measures to help chocking firms and informal businesses (both registered and unregistered businesses) were not part of the scheduled beneficiaries from the government rescue package. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• The early COVID-19 epidemic in South Africa was highly heterogeneous looking at the epidemiological progression between major provinces. • Early transmission in KwaZulu-Natal (KZN) was associated with multiple international introductions of SARS-CoV-2. • The dominating lineages during this time of the epidemic were B.1 and B, which mainly originated from Europe. • Evidence for transmission clusters during the first month of the epidemic suggested locally acquired infection. • A clustered outbreak was linked to a major hospital outbreak in Durban, which inflated the early mortality in KZN. The Network for Genomic Surveillance in South Africa (NGS-SA) was formed to investigate the introduction and understand the early transmission dynamics of the SARS-CoV-2 epidemic in South-Africa. This paper presents the first results from this group, which is a molecular epidemiological study of the first 21 SARS-CoV-2 whole genomes sampled in the first port of entry – KwaZulu-Natal (KZN) – during the first month of the epidemic. By combining this with calculations of the effective reproduction number (R), it aimed to shed light on the patterns of infections in South Africa. Two of the largest provinces – Gauteng and KZN – had a slow growth rate for the number of detected cases, while the epidemic spread faster in the Western Cape and Eastern Cape. The estimates of transmission potential suggested a decrease towards R = 1 since the first cases and deaths, but a subsequent estimated R average of 1.39 between 6–18 May 2020. It was also demonstrated that early transmission in KZN was associated with multiple international introductions and dominated by lineages B1 and B. Evidence for locally acquired infections in a hospital in Durban within the first month of the epidemic was also provided. The COVID-19 pandemic in South Africa was very heterogeneous in its spatial dimension, with many distinct introductions of SARS-CoV2 in KZN and evidence of nosocomial transmission, which inflated early mortality in KZN. The epidemic at the local level was still developing and NGS-SA aimed to clarify the dynamics in South Africa and devise the most effective measures as the outbreak evolved. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Lockdown is one of the drastic measures implemented by governments to curtail the spread of the Covid-19 pandemic and save lives. However, it has caused unprecedented damages to the economy. This paper provides a quantitative approach to assess the impact of a gradual, post-lockdown context concerning the spread of the disease. We propose to create a special class of individuals called "protected" who are risk-free to be infected. Such individuals could also be the vaccinated when an effective vaccine will be available. We developed a mathematical epidemic model for Covid-19 which describes the interactions between susceptible and infected individuals. We investigate the various and optimal strategies to curtail the spread of the infection at a minimum cost. As a case study on South Africa, the sensitivity analysis shows that investing on the special class "protected" is a better approach to reducing new secondary infections as opposed to reducing the contact rate between susceptible and infected individuals, or having more recovered patients. The simulations reveal that the peak could be reached in September 2020. This is consistent with the projection of the South African government as the winter season is expected to be over in mid August. Moreover, if 1 out of 1000 susceptible (cumulatively) join the special class, we project a maximum of 400,000 active cases. The number of infected and deaths could drastically increase as the proportion of individuals joining the special class decreases. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

While the coronavirus disease of 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic exerted a devastating impact on all members of society, it highlighted the worsening inequalities experienced by marginalised groups such as people experiencing poverty and homelessness in South Africa. The pandemic also exacerbated the multiple demands and stressors of service providers working in homeless shelters. Hence, the study examined the experiences of service providers in terms of challenges and opportunities derived from working at homeless shelters in Tshwane, South Africa, during the hard lockdown from 27 March to 30 April 2020. Guided by a qualitative approach, five service providers were interviewed online. Thematic analysis revealed organizational challenges, such as a lack of knowledge and preparedness regarding disaster management, while client challenges included getting service users to adapt to living with rules. Organizational opportunities included the opportunity for the organization to conduct research, while personal opportunities included the learning experience of working with a vulnerable population during an unprecedented pandemic. Findings highlight the need for programmes to support the wellness needs of service providers and the development of a national policy on homelessness. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The implementation of mandatory COVID-19 vaccination policies by several South African public universities highlighted the interpretive struggles of a secular polity regarding freedom of religion or conscience. Such workplace policies relied on the claim that society's collective interests took precedence over the individual's constitutional rights. In essence, the policies allowed for accommodating conscientious objectors, but in reality, the conditions for objection went beyond prioritizing collective interests and neglected the constitutional duty to protect human rights. This article examines how the restrictive vaccination policies of public universities reveal the shortcomings in secular polity's engagement with and appreciation for individual religious self-determination. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The global Covid-19 pandemic exposed the fragility of urban systems and underscored the need to recalibrate regulatory and institutional frameworks for an anticipated crisis-prone future. This article explores the notion of 'adaptive law and governance' as a lens through which city authorities can test and modify legal and governance responses to future urban crises. It compares the experiences of managing Covid-19 in the two biggest cities in the Netherlands (Amsterdam and Rotterdam) and in South Africa (Johannesburg and Cape Town). This comparison, between two sets of urban municipal governments functioning under different constitutional systems and in different socio-economic contexts, provides insights pertaining to how adaptive urban governance during the pandemic was constrained or enabled by the interaction between the regulatory and institutional frameworks for and political realities of urban autonomy and intergovernmental relations. The article demonstrates that cities that govern within a flexible and decentralised legal and governance system are better positioned to develop and implement responsive measures to address crises or uncertainty. To enhance resilience, legal systems should promote transparent, riskresponsive, and reflective local governance tools to enable agile, context- specific and decisive crisis responses that can be employed as a matter of course rather than exception. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

E-tutoring in student support has been well documented however, its significance to open and distance learning institutions during the COVID-19 is still limited. The continued low student retention and success rates put unprecedented pressure to these institutions, as they are responsible for student support. This article presents the findings of an investigation on e-tutors' perceptions of student support in mathematics, science, technology and environmental education courses within an open and distance learning environment in South Africa. The article utilises a blend of connectivism theory by Siemens together with a conceptual framework by Reinmann-Rothmeier and Mandl as key to contributing towards effective student support. Using the interpretive qualitative case study, five e-tutors were interviewed and observed while interacting with students in a digital learning platform. The findings indicate challenges of inadequate student interaction in a digital platform, limited knowledge, and skills of e-tutors on digital media, as well as the need to design digital activities that provoke and motivate students learning. The article recommends transformed digital strategies and creation of interactive activities that will appeal to student engagement. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In recent years, there has been an increase in studies on time-series forecasting for the future occurrence of disease incidents. Improvements in deep learning approaches offer techniques for modelling long-term temporal relationships. Nonetheless, this design practice is rigorously painstaking, prone to errors, and requires human expertise. The advent of feature enrichment with automatic architecture search typically optimises the discovery of new neural architectures applicable in domains such as time-series modelling. The main methodological contribution of this study is an approach for time-series forecasting using feature-enriched filters and an evolutionary neural architecture search with sequence-to-sequence gated recurrent units (GRU-Seq2Seq). This is applied to the prediction of daily cases of coronavirus disease in South Africa. The highly pathogenic coronavirus pandemic incident data was modelled with filters, optimised hyper-parameter search trials and an evolutional neural algorithm. The proposed model was benchmarked against ARIMA and SARIMA. The model predicted trends for 30, 60 and 90-day horizons and evaluated them for 7, 14 and 31 days. Simulation results demonstrate that observed daily case counts with added filters and evolutionary search optimisation for forecasting improve performance accuracy. Generally, the proposed bFilter+GRU-Seq2Seq with optimal search configuration outperformed ARIMA and SARIMA with lower error scores and higher performance metrics, with an R2 score of 7.48E-01 for a 30-day forecast horizon. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The first South African case of the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) in March 2020 escalated to the national lockdown by the end of March 2020. This caused serious repercussions for learners, as there is a lack of infrastructure in South Africa to support online teaching and learning. The purpose of this study was to investigate the use of digital technologies during COVID-19 by teachers. A case study was used and data were collected using a desktop literature review and a semi-structured, open-ended, qualitative questionnaire. The questionnaire was administered to teachers at a secondary school in the Gauteng province, South Africa (SA) and Atlas.ti was used for data analysis. We conclude that online learning was affected by socio-economic problems, the high cost of data and the lack of devices and parental supervision. The recommendations include ways in which government could prepare for future crises that could arise, as well as promoting ongoing attention to digital technology use in teaching and learning to address the digital divide in South Africa. With this study we add to the body of knowledge regarding COVID-19 and the use of digital technologies in teaching and learning, which will assist the government and teachers in understanding the problems and solutions for the use of digital technology in teaching and learning. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Since the arrival of COVID-19, schools have been confronted with complex problems, and the burden on women principals in rural schools has been enormous. - The COVID-19 pandemic has significantly increased the workload of women principals, affecting both their work and home life.” This study sought to explore how the leadership roles of female principals in rural primary schools have been influenced during the COVID-19 pandemic. This qualitative study focused on women principals leading rural primary schools in South Africa during the COVID-19 pandemic, utilizing critical feminist theory for analysis. The study collected data through semi-structured interviews and document analysis. Women principals’ leadership was impacted by a lack of trust, insufficient resources and resistance presented by parents, teachers, and staff members directly and negatively affected the women principals and became an obstacle in pursuing their duties. - The shortage of infrastructure caused learners to attend school intermittently due to new timetabling models introduced to accommodate social distancing. The absence of e-learning amenities made it difficult for rural learners to receive education. ”The absence of e-learning amenities made it difficult for the rural learners to receive education. Further and future research should be conducted in other provinces to compare the experiences of female principals. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: The incidence and prevalence of COVID-19 continues to escalate globally, with the consequence to quality of life, the economies of nations and various sectors of society. While there is substantial research on the impact and experiences of the COVID-19 pandemic, little remains known about the perceptions and lived experiences of families living with people diagnosed with COVID-19, particularly within the South African context. Purpose: To explore the perceptions and lived experiences of family members living with people diagnosed with COVID-19 in South Africa. Methods: A descriptive phenomenological design was used. Data were collected from 15 participants who were family members of people diagnosed with COVID-19 in South Africa. Purposive snowball sampling was used to identify and recruit participants, and data were collected at community level in KwaZulu-Natal, Western Cape and Gauteng, South Africa. Individual in-depth interviews were used to collect the data, and an audio tape was used to record all interviews. Data were transcribed verbatim and analysed using a phenomenological data analysis processes. Ethical approval to conduct the study was obtained from the University of KwaZulu-Natal Research Ethics Committee--reference number: BREC00003228/ 2021. Results: Four super-ordinate themes emerged in relation to the perceptions and lived experiences of family members living with people diagnosed with COVID-19 in South Africa. The superordinate themes were: (1) sources of information about COVID-19, (2) pandemic perceptions and experiences, (3) impact of diagnosis and related burden and (4) aftermath of living with a family member diagnosed with COVID-19. Discussion and conclusion: Family members' perceptions and lived experiences of COVID-19 are largely influenced by media, moreover, the impact of diagnosis has consequences for the physical, mental and emotional well-being of family members. Diagnosis disrupts family dynamics by depleting financial resources due to the caregiver burden experienced. The findings thus imply that provision of psychosocial support is imperative for families living with persons diagnosed with COVID-19. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Young women and Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Trans, Non-binary/no gender, or Questioning (LGBTQ+) youth in South Africa face some of the highest global levels of intimate partner violence (IPV). Given limited evidence in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, which has fuelled IPV globally, we aimed to describe and compare experiences and perpetration of IPV of youth aged 16–24 by sexual orientation and gender identity (SOGI). Methods: During the study period (December 2021-May 2022), youth aged 16–24 from eThekwini district, South Africa completed an online survey to understand multilevel impacts of the pandemic on youth. Participants were asked about experiences and perpetration of physical IPV since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic (March 2020). Descriptive statistics and adjusted logistic regressions compared the likelihood of experiencing and/or perpetrating physical IPV between cisgender and transgender inclusive heterosexual men; heterosexual women; gay, bisexual, or questioning men [GBQM]; lesbian, gay, bisexual, or questioning women [LGBQW]; or gender/sexual non-conforming youth [non-conforming]. Results: Of 1,588 youth (mean age = 21.7 [SD = 2.3]; 71.7% Black) with non-missing SOGI and physical IPV data, 238 (15.0%) were LGBTQ+ (40.3% LGBQW and 36.1% non-conforming). Overall, 14.6% of respondents experienced physical IPV and 9.8% perpetrated physical IPV since the start of the pandemic, which differed by SOGI (12.3% of heterosexual men, 13.9% of heterosexual women, 22.0% of GBQM, 18.2% of LGBQW, and 25.0% of non-conforming youth experienced and 10.3% of heterosexual men; 7.7% of heterosexual women; 10.0% of GBQM; 18.2% of LGBQW; and 16.7% of non-conforming youth perpetrated). In adjusted models, compared to heterosexual women, non-conforming youth had increased odds of experiencing (adjusted odds ratio [aOR] = 2.36; 95%CI, 1.26–4.39) physical IPV and compared to heterosexual men, non-conforming youth had greater odds of perpetrating physical IPV (aOR = 2.19; 95%CI, 1.07–4.48) during the pandemic. Conclusion: Over one in six youth in our study experienced and one in ten perpetrated physical IPV since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, with gender and sexual non-conforming youth experiencing and perpetrating IPV at significantly greater rates than cisgender/heterosexual peers. Our findings highlight the need for gender transformative efforts that move beyond the gender binary to support healthy relationships and IPV prevention for LGBTQ + youth in South Africa and globally. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

COVID-19-related alcohol sales bans and stay-at-home orders prompted the alcohol industry in South Africa to increase their online alcohol sales promotions. We investigated changes in alcohol-related behaviour and the drivers of illegal alcohol sales through a self-reported Facebook survey that ran from July to November 2020. Questions included socio-demographics and comparison of alcohol purchasing behaviour and intake during 2019 and 2020. Statistical tests were applied to find associations between illegal alcohol purchasing and alcohol-related behaviours. A total of 792 participants took part in the survey, 69.7% of whom were female. During lockdown periods, most participants (55.3%) bought alcohol illegally from illegal outlets or friends. Online alcohol-delivery marketing increased by 20 percentage points from 2019 to 2020, with participants stating that they saw a lot of advertisements per day and 80% of persons under 25 years were not asked to verify their age in 2020 upon delivery. Home-brewed beer and vodka intake increased in 2020 during the alcohol sales bans. Men from the Western Cape who engaged in daily or weekly heavy episodic drinking were more prone to purchase alcohol illegally. The Western Cape, which is South Africa’s most prolific wine-producing region, had the highest odds of people buying alcohol illegally, with wine being found to be the most frequently bought alcohol online and consumed by these participants. There is a need for further research into the differences in alcohol-related behaviour affecting illegal alcohol purchasing according to income group, proximity to alcohol producers and underage alcohol sales and marketing through online applications. Significance: • Alcohol sales bans have the potential to reduce and stop the alcohol intake of moderate drinkers, but may make heavy episodic drinkers drink more than usual. • During COVID-19 lockdown, illegal alcohol sales were taking place through unlicenced alcohol outlets and friends, and not through licenced online applications. • Unlicenced alcohol outlets need to be addressed to prevent future illegal alcohol sales. • Stricter regulations aimed at legal online alcohol sales applications should be put in place to prevent alcohol sales to minors and those who have already consumed too much alcohol. • There should be a ban on marketing of addictive substances, such as alcohol. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The COVID-19 pandemic had a significant impact on the pharmaceutical industry, leading to severe interruptions in global medicine supplies. Both large and small businesses implemented exceptional strategic efforts to mitigate the impact of the infection and minimize the resultant financial harm. A total of twenty-five semi-structured interviews were carried out with pharmaceutical supply chain experts in South Africa in order to gain insight into the strategic reactions and long-term impacts of these responses, as perceived by the participants. The occurrence of strategic reactions seems to resemble those observed in prior instances of disruptions in the pharmaceutical supply chain, but with some degree of variation. These solutions encompass methods for addressing the specific supply chain disruption, managing the reality of supply chain disruption to efficiently handle low switching costs, and implementing attempts to recover by increasing the customer experience. These strategic initiatives were expected to lead to the permanent closure of numerous pharmaceutical enterprises, increased consolidation in the global pharmaceutical supply chain, and long-term changes in responsiveness and efficiency improvements. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Many countries in the world are still struggling to control COVID-19 pandemic. As of April 28, 2020, South Africa reported the highest number of COVID-19 cases in Sub- Sahara Africa. The country took aggressive steps to control the spread of the virus including setting a national command team for COVID-19 and putting the country on a complete lockdown for more than 100 days. Evidence across most countries has shown that, it is vital to monitor the progression of pandemics and assess the effects of various public health measures, such as lockdowns. Countries need to have scientific tools to assist in monitoring and assessing the effectiveness of mitigation interventions. The objective of this study was thus to assess the extent to which a systems dynamics model can forecast COVID-19 infections in South Africa and be a useful tool in evaluating government interventions to manage the epidemic through ‘what if’ simulations. Design and Methods: This study presents a systems dynamics model (SD) of the COVID-19 infection in South Africa, as one of such tools. The development of the SD model in this study is grounded in design science research which fundamentally builds on prior research of modelling complex systems. Results: The SD model satisfactorily replicates the general trend of COVID-19 infections and recovery for South Africa within the first 100 days of the pandemic. The model further confirms that the decision to lockdown the country was a right one, otherwise the country’s health capacity would have been overwhelmed. Going forward, the model predicts that the level of infection in the country will peak towards the last quarter of 2020, and thereafter start to decline. Conclusions: Ultimately, the model structure and simulations suggest that a systems dynamics model can be a useful tool in monitoring, predicting and testing interventions to manage COVID-19 with an acceptable margin of error. Moreover, the model can be developed further to include more variables as more facts on the COVID-19 emerge. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Responses by South Africans to communication from their government about the 2020 Covid-19 pandemic have highlighted previously incommunicable socio-economic inequalities pervading access to healthcare. Government's reaction in a bid to stem the Covid-19 global pandemic, though slow at commencement, has often been swift and decisive with regular briefings by ministerial clusters and the presidency in collaboration with various experts, displaying apparent transparency and ease of comprehension for audiences. However, there have arisen a range of oft-negative responses by citizens, such as announced courses of action, often based on representations of who the face of the virus is, and in turn influencing their responses to government's courses of action. In this paper, a Social Representation approach was adopted, with a focus on citizen representations regarding the spread of the Covid-19 virus, arising social representations and potential health communication consequences. The PEN-3 cultural model on health beliefs and actions presents a cultural, yet contextual, understanding of public health and health promotion by predicting people's behaviour within their immediate environment. This article analyses media reports of social representations of Covid-19 captured from South African online media conversations. These conversations illuminate underlying social representations of community beliefs fuelling the spread of the virus. The study contributes to social representation scholarship by providing a local perspective of factors affecting non-compliance with healthcare directives for Covid-19 because of existing socioeconomic inequalities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Repeated COVID-19 waves and corresponding mitigation measures have impacted health systems globally with exceptional challenges. In response to the pandemic, researchers, regulators, and funders rapidly pivoted to COVID-19 research activities. However, many clinical drug studies were not completed, due to often complex and rapidly evolving research conditions. Methods: We outline our experience of planning and managing a randomised, adaptive, open-label, phase 2 clinical trial to evaluate the safety and efficacy of four repurposed drug regimens versus standard-of-care (SOC) in outpatients with 'mild to moderate' COVID-19 in Johannesburg, South Africa, in the context of a partnership with multiple stakeholders. The study was conducted between 3 September 2020 and 23 August 2021 during changing COVID-19 restrictions, significant morbidity and mortality waves, and allied supply line, economic, and political instability. Results: Our clinical study design was pragmatic, including low-risk patients who were treated open label. There was built-in flexibility, including provision for some sample size adjustment and a range of secondary efficacy outcomes. Barriers to recruitment included the timing of waves, staff shortages due to illness, late presentation of patients, COVID-19 misinformation, and political unrest. Mitigations were the use of community health workers, deployment of mobile clinical units, and simplification of screening. Trial management required a radical reorganisation of logistics and processes to accommodate COVID-19 restrictions. These included the delivery of staff training and monitoring remotely, electronic consent, patient training and support to collect samples and report data at home, and the introduction of tele-medicine. These measures were successful for data collection, safe, and well received by patients. Conclusion: Completing a COVID-19 trial in outpatients during the height of the pandemic required multiple innovations in nearly every aspect of clinical trial management, a high commitment level from study staff and patients, and support from study sponsors. Our experience has generated a more robust clinical research infrastructure, building in efficiencies to clinical trial management beyond the pandemic. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Temporary shelters were established for street-based people during the national level 5 coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) lockdown. However, street-based substance users' need to access substances was not addressed, resulting in large numbers of people experiencing withdrawal. The Community Oriented Substance Use Programme (COSUP) in Tshwane provided methadone to manage opioid withdrawal. Methods: A cross-sectional, descriptive study was conducted using the daily methadone dosing records from shelters in Tshwane between March 2020 and September 2020. Results: The final analysis included 495 participants, of which 64 (12.9%) were initiated on 20 mg - 30 mg of methadone, 397 (80.2%) on 40 mg - 50 mg, and 34 (6.9%) on 60 mg - 70 mg. A total of 194 (39.2%) participants continued their initiation dose for 1-2 months, after which 126 (64.9%) had their doses increased, and 68 (35.1%) had their doses decreased. Approximately 12 (2.4%) participants were weaned off methadone after 1-3 months and 46 (9.3%) after 4-6 months. In all, 100 (20.2%) participants left the shelter prematurely and did not continue with methadone. A total of 126 (25.5%) participants continued to stay in the shelters and received methadone for 6 months, with 125 (25.3%) participants leaving the shelter with continued follow-up at a COSUP site. Conclusion: This study demonstrates variability in methadone dosing regimens among shelter residents. As the lockdown measures eased, many chose to leave the shelters, while others remained to receive methadone and other services. The COSUP appears to be effective during periods of increased vulnerability, since a large number of participants were successfully followed up. Contribution: Opioid dependence is a persistent, lifelong disease. It is multifaceted with complex environmental and individual determinants. This study highlighted the use of opioid substitution therapy during a period of increased vulnerability. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Global Journal of Economics & Business is the property of Refaad for Studies, Research & Development and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Morally, South Africa is rapidly spiralling out of control, and the future is gloomy unless severe measures are taken to reverse this trend. South Africa's moral wrongness is likely best summed up by unsettling pathologies such as indiscipline, violence, rape, assault, fraud, and a refusal to assume personal responsibility for high levels of crime, corruption, xenophobic attacks, gender-based violence, and family disintegration. Recently, South Africa has experienced major looting, which began during protests and unrest in some of the country's parts. They are unable to distinguish between what is basically incorrect and what is fundamentally correct. The nation's conscience has become deafeningly silent, or at best, ambiguous. Through qualitative research method and using secondary data, this study aims to discuss the existing challenges in South Africa that have influenced moral decay. It also highlights underlying issues that triggered looting that was instigated by individuals who have been having challenges that have not been addressed. The looting, which was fuelled by protests, happened during COVID-19 national lockdown level 4. This study concludes that non-service delivery, corruption, and negligence, among others, have been the roots of moral decay in South Africa, and the situation will continue to worsen if such challenges within government are not urgently dealt with. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study aimed to examine the impacts of COVID-19 on coastal tourism in Nelson Mandela Bay (NMB), South Africa, and propose effective management interventions to enable swift recovery. A participatory system dynamics modelling approach was applied through a qualitative causal mapping processes to support a quantitative model. Multiple stakeholder perspectives were incorporated to gain a holistic understanding of the local impacts. The study revealed that the effects of the pandemic on tourism in NMB were dynamic and accompanied by shifts in governance responses and traveller behaviour. Uncertainty surrounding the rate of recovery in different sectors was observed. Through collaboration with local stakeholders, recovery interventions were identified and tested according to short-to-long-term tourism needs in stages of recovery, revival and growth. The findings highlight the importance of cross-sectoral collaboration in facilitating informed decision-making for sustainable tourism recovery. Moreover, it is encouraged that participatory, multi-stakeholder approaches are adopted to explore the impacts of exogenous factors on the tourism sector, such as those arising from public health, climate, and social–political change. This inclusive and dynamic approach can be used to develop management strategies that are responsive and adaptable to complex and evolving circumstances that can impact the tourism industry. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

South Africa also has the highest burden of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) related comorbidities in Africa. We aimed to quantify the temporal and geospatial changes in unemployment, food insecurity, and their combined impact on depressive symptoms among South Africans who participated into several rounds of national surveys. We estimated the population-attributable risk percent ( P A R % ) for the combinations of the risk factors after accounting for their correlation structure in multifactorial setting. Our study provided compelling evidence for immediate and severe effect of the pandemic where 60% of South Africans reported household food insecurity or household hunger, shortly after the pandemic emerged in 2020. Despite the grants provided by the government, these factors were also identified as the most influential risk factors (adjusted odds ratios (aORs) ranged from 2.06 to 3.10, p < 0.001) for depressive symptoms and collectively associated with 62% and 53% of the mental health symptoms in men and women, respectively. Similar pattern was observed among pregnant women and 41% of the depressive symptoms were exclusively associated with those who reported household hunger. However, aORs associated with the concerns around pandemic and vaccine were mostly not significant and ranged from 1.12 to 1.26 which resulted substantially lower impacts on depressive symptoms (PAR%:7%-and-14%). Our findings suggest that South Africa still has unacceptably high rates of hunger which is accelerated during the pandemic. These results may have significant clinical and epidemiological implications and may also bring partial explanation for the low vaccine coverage in the country, as priorities and concerns are skewed towards economic concerns and food insecurity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Science teachers could play a vital role in promoting health literacy and safe behaviors to limit the spread of communicable diseases. However, there is limited research concerning their attitudes and behavioral intentions toward diseases, such as COVID-19. Using the theory of planned behavior as a framework, we employed a non-experimental survey to compare the behavioral intentions towards adopting COVID-19 preventative measures among pre-service science teachers from South African (n=87) and Indonesian (n=93) universities. Data were collect data using a closed-ended questionnaire. Results show that the behavioral intentions toward COVID-19 between South African and Indonesian pre-service science teachers are similar. Safe attitudes, subjective norms, perceived behavioral control, behavioral, and normative beliefs that support safe behavioral intentions toward COVID-19 were reported, even though vaccine hesitancy may occur. We extrapolate that interventions should be implemented to enhance pre-service teachers' behavioral intentions and enhance their role in health education. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective: The aim of this study is to evaluate the knowledge, attitude, and anxiety levels of healthcare workers in Turkey and South Africa and to determine the possible factors associated with anxiety. Methods: A cross-sectional study with 864 healthcare workers in Turkey and South Africa was conducted during May 1-October 30, 2020. The questionnaire included sociodemographic, individual, work-related, and about coronavirus disease 2019 questions. Anxiety was measured with the Beck Anxiety Inventory. Results: A total of 864 people answered the questionnaire, 527 from South Africa and 337 from Turkey. Healthcare workers in both countries have mild anxiety levels, and the median value of the Beck Anxiety Scale score was significantly higher in the participants from South Africa (10) than the participants in Turkey (8) (P = .004). Compared to Turkey, the risk of moderate/severe anxiety was 1.56 times higher in South Africa. Female gender, duties out of work definition, difficulties of chronic illness management, difficulties in accessing the treatment of mental health problem, living with a person who is older than 65 or has a comorbidity, and personal protective equipment support were found to be associated with moderate/severe anxiety (P < .05). Conclusion: In order to reduce the mental health impact on healthcare workers, pandemic readiness plans must take into account working hours and workload, adequate personal protective equipment supply, and measures to provide psychological support to healthcare workers, especially those with pre-existing mental health illnesses. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

COVID-19 has become one of the most significant global health crises in history, with a wide range of socio-economic consequences due to the measures taken to stop the spread of the virus. The socio-economic implications of the quarantine caused by COVID-19 have affected all continents. The purpose of the article is to analyze the socio-economic consequences of the quarantine due to the COVID-19 pandemic in Ghana, Kenya and the Republic of South Africa, as well as to examine the critical social protection policy measures taken by the governments of these countries to reduce the vulnerability associated with pandemic prevention measures. This study used content analysis, which allows for the identification of recurring themes, ideas and terminology in the studied database. Directive documents on social protection programs during the pandemic, scientific publications, and reports of international institutions and organizations served as the source of primary information. Based on the content analysis results, 40 documents were selected that met the inclusion criteria: 14 works from Ghana, 13 from Kenya, and 14 from the Republic of South Africa. To investigate the effects of the lockdown caused by COVID-19, content analysis was chosen to identify recurring themes, ideas and terminology in qualitative data collection. A systematic review shows that lockdown measures implemented by the governments of Ghana, Kenya and the Republic of South Africa to mitigate the spread of COVID-19 have led to increased poverty and inequality, lost incomes, worsening food insecurity and increased unemployment. Content analysis found that the impact of COVID-19 differs significantly for men and women, with women experiencing more excellent destructive effects compared to men. The COVID-19 pandemic has harmed rural residents, with poverty rates rising at higher rates and their well-being declining compared to local residents. To respond to the socio-economic consequences of the quarantine due to COVID-19, the countries studied continued existing or introduced new social protection programs to support their citizens. These include cash transfers, food transfers, utility subsidies and fee waivers, community service programs, tax credits, and unemployment benefits. These welfare programs had different parameters consisting of benefits, rights and beneficiaries. Although this study cannot determine the impact of social programs, future studies will be able to assess their impact and effectiveness on beneficiaries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: The purpose of this study was to explore 232 service providers' and policymakers' experiences of supporting children's well-being during the pandemic, across sectors, in 22 countries – including Kenya, the Philippines, South Africa, India, Scotland, Sweden, Canada and the USA, in the last quarter of 2020. Design/methodology/approach: A smartphone survey delivered via a custom-built app containing mostly open-ended questions was used. Respondents were recruited via professional networks, newsletters and social media. Qualitative content analysis was used. Findings: The findings reveal numerous system-level challenges to supporting children's well-being, particularly virus containment measures, resource deficiencies and inadequate governance and stakeholder coordination. Those challenges compounded preexisting inequalities and poorly affected the quality, effectiveness and reach of services. As a result, children's rights to an adequate standard of living; protection from violence; education; play; and right to be heard were impinged upon. Concurrently, the findings illustrate a range of adaptive and innovative practices in humanitarian and subsistence support; child protection; capacity-building; advocacy; digitalisation; and psychosocial and educational support. Respondents identified several priority areas – increasing service capacity and equity; expanding technology use; mobilising cross-sectoral partnerships; involving children in decision-making; and ensuring more effective child protection mechanisms. Practical implications: This study seeks to inform resilience-enabling policies and practices that foster equity, child and community empowerment and organisational resilience and innovation, particularly in anticipation of future crises. Originality/value: Using a novel approach to gather in-the-moment insights remotely, this study offers a unique international and multi-sectoral perspective, particularly from low- and middle-income countries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Health rights of prisoners has long been a neglected political issue in Africa, where over one million people are detained, and almost half of whom are in pre-trial detention. African prisons constitute high-risk environments for communicable disease transmission. During the COVID-19 pandemic, the public health literature on African prison responses focused on preparedness as it related to testing capacity, quarantine practices and personal protective measures to mitigate disease spread. This article combines the right to health as narrowly defined by a prisoner's right to access non-discriminatory equivalent health care, with a broader focus on assessing normative standards of detention. A comparative legal realist assessment of prison operations in South Africa, Malawi and Zimbabwe during COVID-19 state disaster measures is presented, focusing on the environmental determinants of health (ventilation, minimum floor space, water, sanitation, hygiene and nutrition) in prisons. It reveals the inherent tensions in ensuring a balance between respecting the fundamental rights of people living and working in prisons, ensuring adequate environmental health standards and mitigating disease during public health emergencies. Despite insufficient government resourcing and inadequate coverage of COVID-19 responses, few severe outbreaks were reported. This could be due to lack of testing, reporting or other factors (asymptomatic infection, acquired immunity). Prison congestion and unrest however affected prisoners and staff fearful of hazardous living and occupational health conditions. COVID-19 as public health emergency amplifies the need to address systemic deficits in infrastructure, resourcing and efficiency of criminal justice systems. Policy level and pragmatic recommendations for enhanced human rights practice are outlined. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: This research examines the impact of lockdown stringency measures and COVID-19 cases on food and healthcare prices in six Brazil, Russia, India, China, South Africa and Turkey (BRICST) countries. This research is conducted in these countries since previous studies failed to examine the effect of COVID-19 reported cases on food and healthcare prices. Design/methodology/approach: To achieve the objectives of this study, food and healthcare services were regressed against CVC and lockdown stringency measures using the dynamic autoregressive distributed lag (DARDL) model. For this purpose, we used daily data for BRICST countries such as Brazil, Russia, India, China, South Africa and Turkey. Findings: The empirical evidence indicates that, in the long run, COVID-19 cases significantly and positively affect both food and healthcare prices in India, South Africa and China. In contrast, in the short run, COVID-19 positively affects food and healthcare prices in all countries except Russia and Turkey. Similarly, in the long run, the government stringency index (GSI) and Containment and Health Index (CHI) significantly affect health prices in India and South Africa. In contrast, GSI and CHI significantly affect healthcare prices in South Africa only in the short run. Finally, GSI and CHI significantly affect the food prices in the long run in India, South Africa and China and in the short run in South Africa only. Originality/value: The widespread impact of the new Coronavirus (COVID-19) has made the world panic. COVID-19 affected all spheres of life, including food supplies and healthcare services. However, most of the empirical research failed to examine the impact of COVID-19 cases on food and healthcare prices which is the main focus of this study. Moreover, in the given context, the authors use a recently developed model that the previous studies failed to use. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The onset of the Covid-19 pandemic and the resultant lockdown measures to limit exposure to the virus greatly impacted healthcare service delivery. This study examined how healthcare workers' use of technology to deliver maternal and perinatal mental healthcare in South Africa changed, and how they experienced these changes in their practice. Participants were invited to complete a self-reporting questionnaire distributed online to healthcare workers working with mothers and infants across South Africa. Sixty-six participants (n=66) completed the survey. All healthcare workers had access to mobile phones and made use of these to interact with patients. Since the national lockdown in March 2020, healthcare workers' use of technology in their practice has expanded. Virtual consulting as an alternative or adjunct to inperson appointments increased significantly from 22.8% pre-lockdown to 59.6% during the hard lockdown, which was sustained at 61.4% after lockdown regulations were eased. Most healthcare workers (88.9%) found the increased use of technology acceptable, and 61.4% planned to continue using a blend of in-person and virtual appointments after the various stages of lockdown were lifted. The Covid-19 pandemic has impacted how maternal and perinatal mental health services are delivered in public and private settings in SA, with an overall shift towards incorporating mobile healthcare in the form of virtual consultations as standard practice, even in under-resourced communities. This trend highlights the potential of mobile healthcare to expand the reach of perinatal mental healthcare delivery to under-serviced sectors of the population. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Access to maternal healthcare has been a challenge for women of African descent. Similarly, to previous illness outbreaks such as the Ebola and Zika outbreaks, the Coronavirus pandemic effects vary from one demographic group to another. Women, compared to men, are left in a more vulnerable position due to long-existing social inequalities and disparities. Differentiated effects include, amongst others, access to health and healthcare, risk of infection and coping strategies. This study examined the experiences of expectant and new mothers in accessing maternal healthcare services during the COVID-19 pandemic. In-depth interviews were used, and participants were selected from Mmabatho, North-West Province in South Africa. The findings show that women accessing maternal healthcare services have had diverse experiences. Some expectant and new mothers experienced fear, anxiety, and frustration, while some had more positive experiences. The positive experiences included spending more time with their families and newborn babies. Some of the participants were worried because of the fear of being infected with the coronavirus. Furthermore, the unavailability and inadequacy of, as well as limited access to, maternal healthcare services during the COVID-19 pandemic negatively affected some of the women in the study. This study recommends that public and private sectors responsible for providing maternal healthcare should have emergency preparedness measures in place to ensure the continuous provision of maternal healthcare and cushion women in future disease pandemics. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Women shoulder the dual responsibilities of managing their households and professional commitments, which was greatly impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic. This study aims to investigate women's experiences in the workplace during the COVID-19 pandemic, utilising a qualitative approach within an exploratory and interpretivist paradigm. The research adopts a case study methodology focusing on women at different levels of seniority at one of South Africa's leading banks. In-depth interviews were conducted with fifteen women using Microsoft Teams. Thematic analysis was employed to analyse the collected data, resulting in four themes and thirteen sub-themes. The four themes include i) changes in the working model, ii) organisational support, iii) continued career growth, and iv) work-life conflict. Findings indicate that women in the case organisation perceive the remote working model as advantageous, increasing productivity and improved integration of professional and personal roles. The emergence of work-life conflict was noted as a disadvantage to this new model. Although the case organisation provided some support, there is room for improvement. This study offers valuable insights for the financial services sector regarding women's experiences and areas for improvement. The research contributes to the existing body of knowledge and presents a conceptual model for organisations to support female employees working remotely. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: To limit virus spread during the COVID pandemic, extensive measures were implemented around the world. In South Africa, these restrictions included alcohol and movement restrictions, factors previously linked to injury burden in the country. Consequently, reports from many countries, including South Africa, have shown a reduction in trauma presentations related to these restrictions. However, only few studies and none from Africa focus on the impact of the pandemic restrictions on the Emergency Medical System (EMS). Methods: We present a retrospective, observational longitudinal study including data from all ambulance transports of physical trauma cases collected during the period 2019–01-01 and 2021–02-28 from the Western Cape Government EMS in the Western Cape Province, South Africa (87,167 cases). Within this timeframe, the 35-days strictest lockdown level period was compared to a 35-days period prior to the lockdown and to the same 35-days period in 2019. Injury characteristics (intent, mechanism, and severity) and time were studied in detail. Ambulance transport volumes as well as ambulance response and on-scene time before and during the pandemic were compared. Significance between indicated periods was determined using Chi-square test. Results: During the strictest lockdown period, presentations of trauma cases declined by > 50%. Ambulance transport volumes decreased for all injury mechanisms and proportions changed. The share of assaults and traffic injuries decreased by 6% and 8%, respectively, while accidental injuries increased by 5%. The proportion of self-inflicted injuries increased by 5%. Studies of injury time showed an increased share of injuries during day shift and a reduction of total injury volume during the weekend during the lockdown. Median response- and on-scene time remained stable in the time-periods studied. Conclusion: This is one of the first reports on the influence of COVID-19 related restrictions on EMS, and the first in South Africa. We report a decline in trauma related ambulance transport volumes in the Western Cape Province as well as changes in injury patterns, largely corresponding to previous findings from hospital settings in South Africa. The unchanged response and on-scene times indicate a well-functioning EMS despite pandemic challenges. More studies are needed, especially disaggregating the different restrictions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Al-Adab / Al-ādāb is the property of Republic of Iraq Ministry of Higher Education & Scientific Research (MOHESR) and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)