To examine the appropriateness of the decision to quarantine healthcare workers (HCW’s) exposed to COVID-19.

Retrospective cohort study

A tertiary medical center in Israel

HCW’s exposed to a co-worker infected with COVID-19.

Quarantined and non-quarantined HCW’s were followed up for up to one month following exposure and their COVID-19 status determined. The validity of the decision to quarantine was assessed.

A total of 2,595 HCW’s exposed to 419 confirmed index cases were studied. Of the contact cases, 752 HCW’s were quarantined and 1,843 HCWs were not. Of those quarantined, 36 became COVID-19 positive (4.7%). Among those who were not quarantined, only 13 (0.7%) became COVID-19 positive, translated to a sensitivity of 73.5% and a specificity of 71.9% for the decision to quarantine (positive and negative predictive values: 4.7% and 99/3, respectively). Controlling for confounders, the decision to quarantine the HCW by the Israeli Ministry of Health guidelines was associated with a significant risk of becoming COVID-19 positive (RR= 3.83, 95% CI: 1.98-7.36, P=0.001). If a non-selective policy was used, 11,700 working days would have been lost (902 working days lost per one positive case).

Efficient and tight system of HCW contact investigations served its purpose. The study was based on HCWs’ reports and reported adherence to safety regulations and its findings are relevant to the massive waves of the Alpha variant of COVID-19 yet still they demonstrate an effective way of handling risk while not causing damage due to arbitrary risk control measures.

The survival cox analysis is becoming more popular in time to-event data analysis. When there are unobserved/unmeasured individual’s factors, then the results of this model may not be reliable. So, this study aimed to determine the factors associated with covid-19 patient’s survival time with considering frailty factor.

This study conducted at one of the hospitals in Iran. So that, hospitalized patients with confirmed COVID-19 were included. Epidemiological, clinical, laboratory and outcome data on admission were extracted from electronic medical records. Gamma-frailty Cox model was used to identify the effects of the risk factors.

360 patients with COVID-19 enrolled in the study. The median age was 74 years (IQR 61–83); 903 (57·7%) were men and 661 (42·3%) were women, the mortality rate was 17%. The cox frailty model showed that there is at least a latent factor in the model (P = 0.005). Age and platelet count were negatively associated with the length of stay, while red blood cell count was positively associated with the length of stay of patients.

The frailty cox model indicates that in addition to age, the frailty factor is a useful predictor of survival in coved-19 patients.

The COVID-19 pandemic and associated lockdowns were predicted to have a major impact on mental health, however current studies have produced contradictory findings with limited longitudinal data.

Nine years of linked, individual-level administrative data were used to examine changes in psychotropic medication uptake before and during the pandemic.

Medication data from a population-wide prescribing database were linked to demographic and socioeconomic indicators from healthcare registration records (n = 1 801 860). Monthly prescription uptake was split (pre-restrictions: January 2012 to February 2020 and during restrictions: March to October 2020). Auto regressive integrated moving average (ARIMA) models were trained in R taking into consideration trends and seasonal effects. Forecast (‘expected’) monthly values were compared with ‘actual’ values, stratified by demographic factors.

Over the study period 38.5% of the study population were in receipt of ≥1 psychotropic medication. Uptake of these medications have been following a strong upward trend since January 2012. In March 2020 uptake of all medications increased beyond expected values, returning to expected trends from May 2020 for antidepressants, anxiolytics and antipsychotics. In the 8 months during restrictions uptake of hypnotic medication was 12% higher than expected among those <18 years, and anxiolytic medication higher than expected in those >65 years.

Results suggest an initial ‘stockpiling’ of medications in March 2020 before trends mostly returned to expected levels. The anticipated tsunami of mental ill health is not yet manifest in psychotropic medication uptake. There are indications of increased anxiety and sleep difficulties in some subgroups, although these conditions may resolve as we emerge from the pandemic without need for psychiatric intervention.

The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic challenged health care systems in an unprecedented way. Due to the enormous amount of hospital ward and intensive care unit (ICU) admissions, regular care came to a standstill, thereby overcrowding ICUs and endangering (regular and COVID-19-related) critical care. Acute care coordination centers were set up to safely manage the influx of COVID-19 patients. Furthermore, treatments requiring ICU surveillance were postponed leading to increased waiting lists.

A coordination center organizing patient transfers and admissions could reduce overcrowding and optimize in-hospital capacity.

The acute lack of hospital capacity urged the region West-Netherlands to form a new regional system for patient triage and transfer: the Regional Capacity and Patient Transfer Service (RCPS). By combining hospital capacity data and a new method of triage and transfer, the RCPS was able to effectively select patients for transfer to other hospitals within the region or, in close collaboration with the National Capacity and Patient Transfer Service (LCPS), transfer patients to hospitals in other regions within the Netherlands.

From March 2020 through December 2021 (22 months), the RCPS West-Netherlands was requested to transfer 2,434 COVID-19 patients. After adequate triage, 1,720 patients with a mean age of 62 (SD = 13) years were transferred with the help of the RCPS West-Netherlands. This concerned 1,166 ward patients (68%) and 554 ICU patients (32%). Overcrowded hospitals were relieved by transferring these patients to hospitals with higher capacity.

The health care system in the region West-Netherlands benefitted from the RCPS for both ward and ICU occupation. Due to the coordination by the RCPS, regional ICU occupation never exceeded the maximal ICU capacity, and therefore patients in need for acute direct care could always be admitted at the ICU. The presented method can be useful in reducing the waiting lists caused by the delayed care and for coordination and transfer of patients with new variants or other infectious diseases in the future.

This study explores the depressive symptoms in postpartum women during the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) crisis in Japan.

An online survey conducted from May 31 to June 6, 2020 resulted in 3073 responses obtained from mothers with infants < 12 mo.

The point prevalence of the Edinburgh Postnatal Depression Scale (EPDS) score of ≥ 9 was 28.66% for primipara and 25.83% for multipara. Logistic regression analysis indicated a negative association between the COVID-19 crisis and EPDS ≥ 9; specifically, decreased social support and financial concern were identified as risk factors. The COVID-19–related experiences significantly increased the score of each factor of EPDS, ie, anxiety, anhedonia, and depression.

During the COVID-19 crisis, the number of mothers who faced depreciation in social support and income had increased. Moreover, spending their perinatal period during the crisis increased the propensity of facing unexpected changes, such as changes of hospitals for delivery, or cancellation of parenting classes. These multiple factors were associated with an elevated risk of depression in postpartum women. In a prolonged crisis, postpartum mental health should be treated carefully with the prevention of infection.

Disaster preparedness has focussed on acute impact, mass casualty incidents. In early 2020 CALHNs largest hospital the Royal Adelaide Hospital (RAH) was appointed as the state primary COVID-19 adult receiving hospital. Between the period of 1st February 2020 when the first COVID-19 positive patient was admitted, through to 31st December 2020 the RAH had admitted 146 inpatients with COVID-19, 118 admitted to our hospital in the home service, 18 patients admitted to Intensive Care and four patients died whilst inpatients. During this time CALHN has sustained an active (physical and virtual) Network Incident Command Centre (NICC) supported by a Network Incident Management Team (NIMT).

This paper describes our key lessons learnt in relation to the management of a campaign style disaster response including the importance of disaster preparedness, fatigue management and communication. Also described were the challenges of operating in a command model and the role of exercising and education and an overview of our operating rhythm, how we built capability and lessons management.

Undertaking a longer duration disaster response, relating to the COVID-19 pandemic has shown that whilst traditional disaster principles still are important there are many nuances that need to be considered to retain a proportionate response. Our key lessons have revolved around the key tenants of disaster management, communication, capability, and governance.

obesity is a risk factor for various diseases and can affect the disease course. Studies have shown detrimental effects of obesity on patients affected with SARS-CoV-2 including increased hospitalization and more severe disease. This study aims to investigate effects of obesity on symptom duration in patients with COVID-19 and investigate possibility of using BMI as a predictor of symptom duration in outpatient settings.

patients diagnosed with COVID-19 between June and October 2020 who had no other comorbidities and were planned to receive treatment in the outpatient setting were enrolled in the study. Duration of the symptoms was determined based on participants’ self-report of their symptoms. Linear regression was used to create predictive models based on participants’ BMI, age, sex, disease presentation, and their self-reported symptom duration.

210 patients were included in the final analysis. Patients with higher BMI had significantly longer symptom duration. Linear regression models showed highest correlation between BMI and symptom duration compared to other covariates.

low error in predictions and high coverage of data variability showed BMI can be used as a predictive factor for symptom duration in COVID-19 patients treated in outpatient settings.