Plos One
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Clinical Trial
Community practice of using face masks for the prevention of COVID-19 in Saudi Arabia.
Community face masking is possibly of great value in reducing COVID-19 transmission, especially when universally adopted with high compliance. The aim of this study is to investigate the knowledge, common misconceptions, barriers, and the compliance of the community with the use of face masks for the prevention of COVID-19. A validated questionnaire was administered to the participants through a web link by using various social media. ⋯ In general, the study demonstrated a good attitude among participants towards wearing face masks. Although the respondents in the study were aware of the benefits of wearing face masks, the barriers may have decreased their desire to do so. These barriers include difficulty in breathing, discomfort, face irritation, and ear pain.
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A growing body of literature suggests that restrictive public health measures implemented to control COVID-19 have had negative impacts on physical activity. We examined how Stay Home orders in Houston, New York City, and Seattle impacted outdoor physical activity patterns, measured by daily bicycle and pedestrian count data. ⋯ The direction of change varied by location, likely due to differing local contexts and outbreak progression. These results can inform policy around the use of outdoor public infrastructure as the COVID-19 pandemic continues.
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With the spread of Coronavirus Disease 2019 globally, more than 40,000 healthcare staff rushed to Wuhan, Hubei Province to fight against this threatening disease. All staff had to wear personal protective equipment (PPE) for several hours when caring for patients, which resulted in adverse skin reactions and injuries. In this study, we used an online questionnaire to collect the self-reported skin damages among the first-line medical staff in the epidemic. ⋯ The common clinical symptoms of skin reactions were redness, device-like mark, and burning pain in face; and dryness, dermatitis, and itch/irritation in hands. Three risk factors included gender, level of protection, and daily wearing time of PPE were identified that caused skin reactions among medical staff. 150 of 275 (54.55%) participants took preventive strategies like prophylactic dressings, however, more than 75% users had little knowledge about dressings. We suggest the frontline staff strengthened the protection of skin integrity and reduced the prevalence of adverse skin reactions after professional education.
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Accurate and reliable criteria to rapidly estimate the probability of infection with the novel coronavirus-2 that causes the severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS-CoV-2) and associated disease (COVID-19) remain an urgent unmet need, especially in emergency care. The objective was to derive and validate a clinical prediction score for SARS-CoV-2 infection that uses simple criteria widely available at the point of care. ⋯ Criteria that are available at the point of care can accurately predict the probability of SARS-CoV-2 infection. These criteria could assist with decisions about isolation and testing at high throughput checkpoints.
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Swab pooling: A new method for large-scale RT-qPCR screening of SARS-CoV-2 avoiding sample dilution.
To minimize sample dilution effect on SARS-CoV-2 pool testing, we assessed analytical and diagnostic performance of a new methodology, namely swab pooling. In this method, swabs are pooled at the time of collection, as opposed to pooling of equal volumes from individually collected samples. Paired analysis of pooled and individual samples from 613 patients revealed 94 positive individuals. ⋯ Overall, 19,535 asymptomatic patients were screened using 4,400 RT-qPCR assays. This corresponds to an increase of 4.4 times in laboratory capacity and a reduction of 77% in required tests. Therefore, swab pooling represents a major alternative for reliable and large-scale screening of SARS-CoV-2 in low prevalence populations.