How the Islands of the South Pacific have remained relatively unscathed in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic

Diarra, Ivan; Muna, Lency; Diarra, Umar

doi:10.1016/j.jmii.2020.06.015

Cited by 9 publications

(7 citation statements)

References 1 publication

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“…The Pacific Islands have been some of the least affected nations in the world due to their unique ability to shut down border traffic [38]. As of August 2, 2020, only 6 countries of the Pacific Islands (Papua New Guinea, Fiji, French Polynesia, Guam, New Caledonia, and Northern Mariana Islands) have recorded positive COVID-19 cases.…”

Section: Government Response and Public Health Policymentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Among the 12 countries without any confirmed cases, 10 are in this region (Kiribati, Marshall Islands, Micronesia, Nauru, Palau, Samoa, Solomon Islands, Tonga, Tuvalu, and Vanuatu). Furthermore, many nations recently strengthened their infectious disease prevention, surveillance, and response systems due to the re-emergence of measles in the area in 2019 [38][39][40].…”

Section: Government Response and Public Health Policymentioning

confidence: 99%

See 1 more Smart Citation

SARS-CoV-2 Wave Two Surveillance in East Asia and the Pacific: Longitudinal Trend Analysis

Post¹,

Lin²,

Moss³

et al. 2021

J Med Internet Res

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Background The COVID-19 pandemic has had a profound global impact on governments, health care systems, economies, and populations around the world. Within the East Asia and Pacific region, some countries have mitigated the spread of the novel coronavirus effectively and largely avoided severe negative consequences, while others still struggle with containment. As the second wave reaches East Asia and the Pacific, it becomes more evident that additional SARS-CoV-2 surveillance is needed to track recent shifts, rates of increase, and persistence associated with the pandemic. Objective The goal of this study is to provide advanced surveillance metrics for COVID-19 transmission that account for speed, acceleration, jerk, persistence, and weekly shifts, to better understand country risk for explosive growth and those countries who are managing the pandemic successfully. Existing surveillance coupled with our dynamic metrics of transmission will inform health policy to control the COVID-19 pandemic until an effective vaccine is developed. We provide novel indicators to measure disease transmission. Methods Using a longitudinal trend analysis study design, we extracted 330 days of COVID-19 data from public health registries. We used an empirical difference equation to measure the daily number of cases in East Asia and the Pacific as a function of the prior number of cases, the level of testing, and weekly shift variables based on a dynamic panel model that was estimated using the generalized method of moments approach by implementing the Arellano-Bond estimator in R. Results The standard surveillance metrics for Indonesia, the Philippines, and Myanmar were concerning as they had the largest new caseloads at 4301, 2588, and 1387, respectively. When looking at the acceleration of new COVID-19 infections, we found that French Polynesia, Malaysia, and the Philippines had rates at 3.17, 0.22, and 0.06 per 100,000. These three countries also ranked highest in terms of jerk at 15.45, 0.10, and 0.04, respectively. Conclusions Two of the most populous countries in East Asia and the Pacific, Indonesia and the Philippines, have alarming surveillance metrics. These two countries rank highest in new infections in the region. The highest rates of speed, acceleration, and positive upwards jerk belong to French Polynesia, Malaysia, and the Philippines, and may result in explosive growth. While all countries in East Asia and the Pacific need to be cautious about reopening their countries since outbreaks are likely to occur in the second wave of COVID-19, the country of greatest concern is the Philippines. Based on standard and enhanced surveillance, the Philippines has not gained control of the COVID-19 epidemic, which is particularly troubling because the country ranks 4th in population in the region. Without extreme and rigid social distancing, quarantines, hygiene, and masking to reverse trends, the Philippines will remain on the global top 5 list of worst COVID-19 outbreaks resulting in high morbidity and mortality. The second wave will only exacerbate existing conditions and increase COVID-19 transmissions.

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Section: Government Response and Public Health Policymentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Government Response and Public Health Policymentioning

confidence: 99%

SARS-CoV-2 Wave Two Surveillance in East Asia and the Pacific: Longitudinal Trend Analysis

Post¹,

Lin²,

Moss³

et al. 2021

J Med Internet Res

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…In contrast, the global effort to combat COVID-19, particularly the strict implementation of public health control measures, provides some collateral benefit of reducing the spread of other infectious diseases [ 7 , 8 , 9 , 10 , 11 , 12 , 13 , 14 , 15 , 16 ]. In Japan, cases of seasonal influenza were lower in 2020 than in previous years, which could be associated with the seasonal temperature (local climate), viral virulence, and measures taken to constrain the SARS-CoV-2 outbreak [ 17 ].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

The impact of the coronavirus disease 2019 epidemic on notifiable infectious diseases in Taiwan: A database analysis

Lai

Chen

Yen

et al. 2021

Travel Medicine and Infectious Disease

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Introduction The impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the incidence of notifiable infectious diseases (NIDs) in Taiwan remains unclear. Materials and Methods The number of cases of NID (n = 42) between January and September 2019 and 2020 were obtained from the open database from Taiwan Centers for Disease Control. Results The number of NID cases was 21,895 between January and September 2020, which was lower than the number of cases during the same period in 2019 (n = 24,469), with a decline in incidence from 102.9 to 91.7 per 100,000 people in 2019 and 2020, respectively. Fourteen airborne/droplet, 11 fecal-oral, seven vector-borne, and four direct-contact transmitted NID had an overall reduction of 2,700 (-28.1%), 156 (-23.0%), 557 (-54.8%), and 73 (-45.9%) cases, respectively, from 2019 to 2020. Similar trends were observed for the changes in incidence, which were 11.5 (-28.4%), 6.7 (-23.4%), 2.4 (-55.0%), and 0.3 (-46.2%) per 100,000 people for airborne/droplet, fecal-oral, vector-borne, and direct-contact transmitted NID, respectively. In addition, all the 38 imported NID showed a reduction of 632 (-73.5%) cases from 2019 to 2020. In contrast, 4 sexually transmitted diseases (STDs) showed an increase of 903 (+7.2%) cases from 2019 to 2020, which was attributed to the increase in gonorrhea (from 3,220 to 5,028). The overall incidence of STDs increased from 52.5 to 56.0 per 100,000 people, with a percentage change of +6.7%. Conclusion This study demonstrated a collateral benefit of COVID-19 prevention measures for various infectious diseases, except STDs, in Taiwan, during the COVID-19 epidemic.

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“…According to [26], low-quality transportation infrastructure has reduced the number of infections. Another study by [27] identified rural isolation as a natural quarantine.On the other hand, the late 2009 Influenza Pandemic revealed that intimacy in indigenous communities' daily interactions contributed to a higher hospitalization rate [28]. The main challenge faced by rural borderland communities during the Covid19 era was the scarcity of public health services [29].…”

Section: E Informal Collaboration In Pandemic Settingmentioning

confidence: 99%

White Misconducts: Informal Acts in Crossborder Primary Health Service Delivery (Case of Panggang, Central Java, Indonesia)

Andini¹,

Djunaedi²,

Swasto³

et al. 2021

IJRSI

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Public health services in Indonesia are managed in a territorialism approach that limits services to a specific administrative area. Refferal system in health care sets primary health facilities to each citizen and limits crossborder services. The absence of primary health care in Glagaharjo border settlement and the limitation of crossborder services created barriers for universal health care in rural provincial border settlements. Interruptions in providing services to borderland communities were a major problem with the system during the era of good governance. Informal crossborder services involving changes in health-care administration came as a viable option for ensuring universal health-care services. This paper examines the process of crossborder primary health service delivery by Pustu Panggang, Central Java Province, to communities in Glagaharjo, Daerah Istimewa Yogyakarta Province, sharing provincial borderline. Data was gathered through in-depth interviews with local officials and stakeholders. Using the compare and contrast technique, the concepts of good governance and cross-border health services are compared and contrasted. Thefindings shows that informal acts including exceeding-authority decision making, ignorance, and other forms of misconducts come as the impromptu strategy to keep primary care available to those in need. As Covid-19 pandemic unfolded, informal acts save community from the lack of access to primary healthcare due to the cost of formal arrangement.

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How the Islands of the South Pacific have remained relatively unscathed in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic

Cited by 9 publications

References 1 publication

SARS-CoV-2 Wave Two Surveillance in East Asia and the Pacific: Longitudinal Trend Analysis

SARS-CoV-2 Wave Two Surveillance in East Asia and the Pacific: Longitudinal Trend Analysis

The impact of the coronavirus disease 2019 epidemic on notifiable infectious diseases in Taiwan: A database analysis

White Misconducts: Informal Acts in Crossborder Primary Health Service Delivery (Case of Panggang, Central Java, Indonesia)

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