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This paper aims to assess the effectiveness of strategies adopted by national health systems across the globe in different 'geographical regions' in the Northern Hemisphere to combat COVID-19 pandemic. Data is included since the first case was reported in November 2019 till mid-April 2020. Sources of information are COVID-19 case repositories, official country websites, university research teams' perspectives, official briefings, and available published research articles to date. We triangulated all data to formulate a comprehensive illustration of COVID-19 situation in each country included. It has been found that the 2002-2004 SARS outbreak experienced in China, Taiwan, and South Korea saw better strategies adopted by leadership to combat COVID-19 pandemic containment as compared to Iran, Italy, and the United States of America. Saudi Arabia has so far been successful in the implementation of containment strategies as there is no large outbreak in major cities or confined areas as prisons. The situation has yet to unfold in India and Pakistan, which exhibit their own weaknesses in policy formulation or implementation in response to health crises. This review provides conclusive evidence that timely travel bans, early detection of COVID-19 spread through exhaustive and reliable testing, and the establishment of a central, fully authorized body to foresee health trends and implement appropriate containment measures are essential to contain the spread of the virus. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: The world has historically faced and recovered from many pandemics. The most recent global pandemic that the whole world is facing is Novel Coronavirus - Covid-19. The objective of current study is to compare and forecast COVID-19 trends for Pakistan and India. Methods: The data set for this research is obtained from the World Health Organization (WHO) online repository (https://covid19.who.int/). The time period we have considered since the first corona related case and death were observed in both countries. This research paper analyzes corona related cases and deaths in Pakistan and India till 28th February 2021, a total of 578,797 cases in Pakistan and 11,096,731 cases in India has been confirmed including 128,37 and 1,570,51 deaths respectively. The Auto-Regressive Integrated Moving Average (ARIMA) model is used to forecast the variables cumulative cases and deaths. It is simple to use and more predictive than any other regression model. Results: Based on the current trend, the forecast graph reveals that the number of cumulative corona cases could reach 999,767 in Pakistan and 16,481,122 in India up to 31st December 2021. Conclusion: This research found that corona related cumulative cases and deaths are on the rise in both countries. The pandemic situation in India is worse than in Pakistan nevertheless both countries are at high risk. There is a sudden increasing pattern in the number of corona related cases in both countries. Both governments must impose effective policies to control this pandemic. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Internet addiction has been seen to rise significantly during the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic especially during the quarantine period. Closure of offices, marketplaces, educational institutes, and lack of social interactions has led to an upsurge in the usage of the internet not only for academic and work but also for relaxation and a muddle through monotonic life amidst pandemic. It is essential to understand the effects of this addiction on the general population. Young's and Temperance's model; one of the behavioral models explain behavioral changes among individuals related to internet addiction amidst crisis. This paper aims to discuss how the intercalated interplay between biological characteristics such as brain plasticity, psychological and predisposing characteristics, environmental and need-based factors during the pandemic have led to internet addiction. This could help health authorities in developing effective methods to reduce internet addiction prevalence through preventive measures like counselling, therapeutic interventions, and a hotline service. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: The objective is to determine the impact of lockdown in TB care services in Pakistan and to provide suggestion for future recommendations. Methods: Extensive literature review of published articles along with NTP reports was done. The TB case detection data for the year 2020 along with the impact of COVID-19 on TB infrastructure and resources were also reviewed. Results: There was a drop in the TB notification rate during 2020 due to COVID-19 and its ramifications on the Health Sector. Health care workers being on the frontline are more prone towards acquiring COVID-19, particularly with a marked deficiency of personal protective equipment (PPEs) that has had a demoralizing effect among health professionals. Besides this the diagnostic and treatment facilities for Tuberculosis were also interrupted badly. Conclusion: The lockdown has adversely affected the health services, particularly routine immunization and TB care services, including diagnosis and case notification which declined significantly. Moreover, upgradation of strategies for the provision of services will prove to be extremely beneficial for both COVID-19 and the people with Tuberculosis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The health care professionals (HCPs) in Pakistan are vulnerable to the negative psychological impact of the current COVID-19 pandemic. The shortage of trained HCPs in Pakistan coupled with vulnerable infrastructure and depleted resources make the situation a source of psychological reactions like fear, anger, anxiety, and depression for HCPs during COVID-19 outbreak. These psychological reactions are produced by the preceding thoughts and emotions according to the cognitive behavioral model. Therefore, a cognitive behavioral crisis intervention model (CBCIM) is proposed with aim of helping HCPs deal with these psychological reactions efficiently. The common components of CBCIM include the cognitive restructuring of the negative thoughts, teaching of relaxation and mindfulness exercises, the teaching of ACT-ADD approach and use of coping cards, district wise team-based action plan and the provision of these services to HCPs regularly even after the end of COVID -19 pandemic. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Present study was designed as to determine the probability and relative risk of COVID-19 in suspects with positive contacts history. Methods: A cross sectional observational study was conducted in district Nowshera on COVID-19 suspects/patients. A total of 365 suspects/patients were included from Feb 10 to April 20, 2020. All the data was uploaded on SPSS version 25 that was designed for this particular study. Results: Out of total 365, 264(72.3%) were males and 101(27.7%) females. The descriptive statistics of age with mean and standard deviation was 35+16 years. 12/41(29.26%) positive cases were recorded in age>55 years of age. Historyof contact with positive COVID-19 patients was contributing in35/41(85.36%) confirmed cases. There was a significant relation of an increase in age with viral infectivity (Chi-Square=11.48, p=0.009). A strong relationship of positive close contact history with COVID-19 infection (Chi- Square=19.56, p=0.001) was recorded. The probability of the infection with 2019-nCoV in patients with close contact history was 6.12 times more than suspects with no contact history (OR=6.12, 95%CI, 2.5-14.9). The relative risk of infection was (rr=1.75, 95%CI, 1.4-2.07) in suspects with positive contacts as compared to no contacts history (rr=0.28, 95%CI, 0.1-0.6). Conclusion: The probability, relative risk and correlation of history of contacts with strong suspects/ COVID-19 patients increase the chances of infectivity with 2019nCoV in folds. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The coronavirus also called 2019 novel coronavirus (2019-nCoV) or severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-2) is notorious for its pandemic corona virus disease 2019 (COVID-19). By 20 April 2020 (11.44 GMT), the pandemicity has inflicted more than 2.42 million people in the world resulting in more than 165,903 deaths (case fatality rate = 14.6%). However, due credit goes to health care professionals for saving 635,761 lives i.e. 26.3% of the total affected population. On the other side, the economy of the countries has drastically been shattered in this scenario. According to an estimate, sole Pakistan will have to meet an economic loss of 1.3 trillion Pak rupees, provided the outbreak is controlled within short time span. Similarly, associated psychological disorders and social displeasure cannot be set aside. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Pakistan Journal of Public Health https://doi.org/10.32413/pjph.v10i4.690 www.pjph.org Pak J Public Health; Vol 10(4): December 2020 199 LETTER TO EDITOR he spread of COVID-19 has infected a lot of people in the world and have changed the dynamics globally in every sphere of life. The nursing education system should explore different simulationbased learning software for clinical education to assist and engage the nursing students in online clinical learning and virtual practice of their clinical skills before entering the real hospital environment. Moreover, the use of these digital learning software should be made a part of regular nursing curriculum to give students an exposure of virtual patients and associated nursing management prior to their interaction with real patients. [Extracted from the article]