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Abstract Background The COVID-19 pandemic in Egypt triggered national preparedness, public engagement, and an integrated response that included social distancing measures, for example, staying at home. We aimed to investigate community awareness of and commitment to complying with the stay-at-home orders in Damietta Governorate, Egypt, during the COVID-19 pandemic. Methods A web-based cross-sectional survey was designed and completed by 500 adult participants from Damietta, Egypt, between April 10 and July 15, 2020. Participants were asked about their sociodemographics, sources of knowledge about COVID-19, awareness of COVID-19 prevention methods, commitment to stay-at-home orders, and their trust in governmental measures, community resources, and emergency services. The participants were classified as stay-at-home responders or nonresponders. Results Of the participants, 18.4% responded to stay-at-home orders; the main reasons for leaving home were buying essentials, especially food, and going to work. Compliance was significant among elderly individuals and those with a history of chronic illness. Nonresponse was significant among individuals who were married, working, or had low family income. More than one-third (39.2%) had good knowledge of effective methods of COVID-19 prevention, and the overall accepted knowledge was significantly higher among stay-at-home responders than nonresponders. Their trust in governmental measures, community resources, and emergency services to manage the pandemic was poor—84.6%, 71.8%, and 79%, respectively—with no significant differences between the groups. Conclusions Participants’ compliance with and engagement in stay-at-home orders in Damietta Governorate, Egypt, was poor. Public response to stay-at-home orders is affected by sociodemographics, and the public’s trust in governmental measures, community resources, and emergency services was poor. Understanding how social distancing is perceived in Egypt is important to provide public support and improve pandemic disease containment.

Background: The COVID-19 pandemic in Egypt triggered national preparedness, public engagement, and an integrated response that included social distancing measures, for example, staying at home. We aimed to investigate community awareness of and commitment to complying with the stay-at-home orders in Damietta Governorate, Egypt, during the COVID-19 pandemic. Methods: A web-based cross-sectional survey was designed and completed by 500 adult participants from Damietta, Egypt, between April 10 and July 15, 2020. Participants were asked about their sociodemographics, sources of knowledge about COVID-19, awareness of COVID-19 prevention methods, commitment to stay-at-home orders, and their trust in governmental measures, community resources, and emergency services. The participants were classified as stay-at-home responders or nonresponders. Results: Of the participants, 18.4% responded to stay-at-home orders; the main reasons for leaving home were buying essentials, especially food, and going to work. Compliance was significant among elderly individuals and those with a history of chronic illness. Nonresponse was significant among individuals who were married, working, or had low family income. More than one-third (39.2%) had good knowledge of effective methods of COVID-19 prevention, and the overall accepted knowledge was significantly higher among stay-at-home responders than nonresponders. Their trust in governmental measures, community resources, and emergency services to manage the pandemic was poor—84.6%, 71.8%, and 79%, respectively—with no significant differences between the groups. Conclusions: Participants' compliance with and engagement in stay-at-home orders in Damietta Governorate, Egypt, was poor. Public response to stay-at-home orders is affected by sociodemographics, and the public's trust in governmental measures, community resources, and emergency services was poor. Understanding how social distancing is perceived in Egypt is important to provide public support and improve pandemic disease containment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective: Although anecdotal evidence indicates the effectiveness of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) social-distancing policies, their effectiveness in relation to what is driven by public awareness and voluntary actions needs to be determined. We evaluated the effectiveness of the 6 most common social-distancing policies in the United States (statewide stay-at-home orders, limited stay-at-home orders, nonessential business closures, bans on large gatherings, school closure mandates, and limits on restaurants and bars) during the early stage of the pandemic. Methods: We applied difference-in-differences and event-study methodologies to evaluate the effect of the 6 social-distancing policies on Google-released aggregated, anonymized daily location data on movement trends over time by state for all 50 states and the District of Columbia in 6 location categories: retail and recreation, grocery stores and pharmacies, parks, transit stations, workplaces, and residences. We compared the outcome of interest in states that adopted COVID-19–related policies with states that did not adopt such policies, before and after these policies took effect during February 15–April 25, 2020. Results: Statewide stay-at-home orders had the strongest effect on reducing out-of-home mobility and increased the time people spent at home by an estimated 2.5 percentage points (15.2%) from before to after policies took effect. Limits on restaurants and bars ranked second and resulted in an increase in presence at home by an estimated 1.4 percentage points (8.5%). The other 4 policies did not significantly reduce mobility. Conclusion: Statewide stay-at-home orders and limits on bars and restaurants were most closely linked to reduced mobility in the early stages of the COVID-19 pandemic, whereas the potential benefits of other such policies may have already been reaped from voluntary social distancing. Further research is needed to understand how the effect of social-distancing policies changes as voluntary social distancing wanes during later stages of a pandemic. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Daily Google mobility data covering 130 countries over the period between February 15, 2020 and May 2, 2020 suggest that less mobility is associated with lower COVID-19 cases and deaths. This observation is formally tested by using a difference-in-difference design, where country-fixed effects, day-fixed effects, as well as the country-specific timing of the 100th COVID-19 case are controlled for. The results suggest that 1% of a weekly increase in being at residential places leads to about 70 less weekly COVID-19 cases and about 7 less weekly COVID-19 deaths, whereas 1% of a weekly decrease in visits to transit stations leads to about 33 less weekly COVID-19 cases and about 4 less weekly COVID-19 deaths, on average across countries. Similarly, 1% of a weekly reduction in visits to retail & recreation results in about 25 less weekly COVID-19 cases and about 3 less weekly COVID-19 deaths, or 1% of a weekly reduction in visits to workplaces results in about 18 less weekly COVID-19 cases and about 2 less weekly COVID-19 deaths. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

During the widespread of COVID-19, stay-at-home and social distancing have become the important means of epidemic prevention, but they also have changed patterns of human interaction. Under this circumstance, the impact of epidemic-specific social capital on physical activity and health status is examined. A most recent survey of WeChat networkers shows the following results. Bonding social capital and bridging social capital are the two main components of epidemic-specific social capital, and both jointly promote physical activity participation and health status. Physical isolation moderates the effect of epidemic-specific social capital on physical activity and health status. Physical activity mediates the effect of epidemic-specific social capital on health status and its mediating role is significant. The following conclusions are supported: (1) Physical isolation during the epidemic is an effective way to maintain people' s health status. (2) The epidemic-specific social capital plays an important role during the epidemic, and its feature of maintaining interpersonal relationship can improve the effectiveness of epidemic prevention. (3) Although physical isolation limits physical exercise conditions, intimate interactions and online communications can encourage new forms of physical activity, paving the path to smooth transition of the pandemic. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article analyzes which characteristics are correlated with mobility reductions during the COVID-19 pandemic, using census-division-level mobility data for Canada from Facebook. There is significant variation in the extent to which social distancing was applied in April, relative to a preperiod of February. I find that the population and population density of a census division are strongly correlated with larger mobility reductions. Conversely, I find that areas with a larger share of dwellings that are apartments exhibit smaller mobility reductions, suggesting that those in tighter living conditions may find it less possible to stay at home during the pandemic. Finally, I examine the persistence of mobility reductions into May and show that areas with a larger apartment dwelling share are more likely to maintain their social distancing over time. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

To combat the global COVID-19 crisis, governments and health organizations rely on collective cooperation among every ordinary individual to adhere to non-pharmaceutical interventions (NPIs), such physical distancing which includes, as examined in our study, staying at home. Thus, we ask the question: do individual differences in how individuals see themselves as connected to or separated from others (i.e., independent vs. interdependent self-construal) predict their stay-at-home adherence? In an online study (N = 358; 47.1% female, M age = 40.48; 74.02% White), we measured trait self-construal, inclusion of others in the self (IOS), self-control and likelihood to stay-at-home in various scenarios. Results revealed a significant indirect, sequential effect of self-construal on stay-at-home adherence via IOS and self-control. Specifically, participants with a more accessible interdependent (vs. independent) self-construal reported higher stay-at-home adherence intentions as a consequence of greater IOS and self-control. Theoretical and practical implications are discussed. • Trait self-construal predicts stay-at-home likelihood during the COVID-19 pandemic. • Interdependent self-construal predicts the inclusion of others in the self. • Inclusion of others in the self predicts trait self-control. • Self-control predicts stay-at-home likelihood. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]