Rural and Remote Communities: Unique Ethical Issues in the COVID-19 Pandemic

Relationship Between Fear of COVID-19, Psychopathology and Sociodemographic Variables in Malaysian Population

“…This could be attributed to better connectivity to regular updates and information regarding COVID-19, as well as close proximity to the hospital (Acuto 2020). On the other hand, the rural communities have poorer populations, poor access to COVID-19 information, and lesser hospital or medical facility as compared to urban area (Erwin et al 2020;Smith and Trevelyn 2019;Summers-Gabr 2020). These limitations could be the contributing factors to higher level of fear of COVID-19 among those aforementioned communities.…”

<p>Rural Pandemic Preparedness: The Risk, Resilience and Response Required of Primary Healthcare</p>

“…36 Other stressors relevant to rural PHC teams may relate to any overlapping and conflicting patientprovider relationships they may experience around rising rates of community mental illness, job losses and poverty, domestic violence or crime during pandemic periods. 37 These may have strong effects on rural healthcare workers whose professional lives are intertwined with their personal connections to people in their community.…”

“…41 Burnout threatens rural community health and local health system leadership because of the small number of health workers in rural settings. 37,42 Surge policies to provide additional staffing to rural PHC teams could be activated early in pandemic situations to embed more capacity of "super-numeri" staff within the response, and enable viable rosters for PHC workers to get enough rest. This arrangement also serves to allow any exposed/unwell staff to undergo self-isolation, without impacting the rest of the team and the community's access to care.…”

Rural‐related epidemiology of COVID‐19 cases in Queensland

“…Rural communities globally have been considered to be at particular risk during the COVID-19 pandemic related to vulnerable populations, and further compromise of existing health care infrastructure and economic impacts. 1,2 In January 2020, the Queensland Minister of Health declared a public health emergency for the state after the outbreak of the novel coronavirus considered to have pandemic potential and presentation of travellers with COVID-19 having travelled from Wuhan with the infectious agent. 3 Immediately following, amendments to the Public Health Act 2005 (Queensland) substantially extended the period and scope of emergency powers with specific reference to the COVID-19 emergency.…”