A Look Behind the Scenes at COVID-19: National Strategies of Infection Control and Their Impact on Mortality.
(1) Background: The severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) began spreading across the globe in December and, as of 9 July 2020, had inflicted more than 550,000 deaths. Public health measures implemented to control the outbreak caused socio-economic havoc in many countries. The pandemic highlighted the quality of health care systems, responses of policymakers in harmony with the population, and socio-economic resilience factors. We suggest that different national strategies had an impact on mortality and case count. (2) Methods: We collected fatality data for 17 countries until 2 June 2020 from public data and associated these with implemented containment measures. (3) Results: The outcomes present the effectiveness of control mechanisms in mitigating the virus for selected countries and the UAE as a special case. Pre-existing conditions defined the needed public health strategies and fatality numbers. Other pre-existing conditions, such as temperature, humidity, median age, and low serum 25-hydroxyvitamin D (25(OH)D) concentrations played minor roles and may have had no direct impact on fatality rates. (4) Conclusions: Prevention, fast containment, adequate public health strategies, and importance of indoor environments were determining factors in mitigating the pandemic. Development of public health strategies adapted to pre-existing conditions for each country and community compliance with implemented policies ensure the successful control of pandemics.
['Haj Bloukh|Samir|S|', 'Edis|Zehra|Z|0000-0001-9555-3473', 'Shaikh|Annis A|AA|', 'Pathan|Habib M|HM|0000-0002-0099-2009']
D000073640:Betacoronavirus D000086382:COVID-19 D018352:Coronavirus Infections D004196:Disease Outbreaks D006801:Humans D006813:Humidity D017053:Infection Control D058873:Pandemics D011024:Pneumonia, Viral D011634:Public Health D000086402:SARS-CoV-2
COVID-19 SARS-CoV-2 containment UAE pre-existing conditions public health strategy prevention India control measures droplets human coronavirus indoor and outdoor climate post-lockdown period recommendations vitamin D