China
Africa
Explore chapters and articles related to this topic
COVID-19 Precautions and Management Strategies
Published in Joystu Dutta, Srijan Goswami, Abhijit Mitra, COVID-19 and Emerging Environmental Trends, 2020
Joystu Dutta, Srijan Goswami, Abhijit Mitra
Exposure to infectious agents or contagious diseases can be prevented (to an extent) by the implementation of proper self-isolation or quarantine measures. Self-isolation is the process of keeping people infected with contagious disease separate from healthy people. Quarantine is the process of restricting the movement of people exposed to a contagious disease to be sure whether they develop the disease or not. Social distancing is not the same as self-isolation and quarantine. Social distancing means the act of avoiding locations or situations where there is a risk of getting exposed to a contagious disease. Self-isolation should be implemented if individuals are experiencing symptoms such as mild fever, cough, or headache or if they have been tested positive for COVID-19, they are advised to self-isolate themselves at home until fully recovered (at least 7 days) (NHS, 2020) or if the individual suspects of being exposed to the COVID-19-infected person (at least 14 days) (NHS, 2020). During this self-isolation period, going out in public, letting unnecessary visitors in, contact with pets or animals must be avoided. It is important to perform proper monitoring of the symptoms. Self-isolation process should not be discontinued without the permission from healthcare providers. If the symptoms get worse and the individual experiences difficulty in breathing, it is advised to seek medical attention immediately (WHO, 2020a).
How to front the physical distancing requirement within workforce scheduling: empirical investigation through an optimization model
Published in Production & Manufacturing Research, 2022
Riccio Carlo, Menanno Marialuisa, Savino Matteo M.
Within working environments, the term Social Distancing, due to its wider meaning, should be better mentioned as Physical Distancing because it may avoid closer contacts among people thus reducing the potential cross-transmission of virus-carrying droplets from human respiration (Sun & Zhai, 2020). The analysis of recent studies on physical distancing shows discrepancies on the correct distance; the Word Health Organization recommends at least 1 m, Güner et al. (2020) suggest at least 3 feet, and Huremovic (2019) recommends that a minimum of 2 m (about two arms’ length) should be kept between each other, while others believed that 2 m may not be adequate during this COVID-19 outbreak (Setti et al., 2020).
Propagation in outdoor environments of aerosol droplets produced by breath and light cough
Published in Aerosol Science and Technology, 2020
Ettore Maggiore, Matteo Tommasini, Paolo M. Ossi
Taking the recent case of SARS-CoV-2 infection as a relevant, but not exclusive example it was ascertained that although the virus diameter ranges from 50 to 200 nm (Guzman 2020) the infection spreads through inhalation, or ingestions of contaminated droplets (Morawska and Cao 2020). Again for SARS-CoV-2, over a cohort of 500 adults from the Milan, Bergamo, Cremona and Lodi areas (Lombardy, Italy) males (about 40%) and females (about 60%), aged from 25 to 70, according to different antibody tests (IgG and IgM; ACRO Rapid test, ACRO Biotech, INC; Cellex Q rapid Test; LIAISON®RSARS-CoV-2 S1/S2 IgG test) performed in late May, 2020, 6% were positive (n = 34), while uncertain results were 4% (n = 17). Over the same population 1% at the most were positive according to laboratory test, while fully asymptomatic (R. Mantegazza, email to P.M. Ossi, June 10, 2020). Although this fraction is rather small, there is a further important risk of infection associated with the incubation time. For SARS-CoV-2, the latter is estimated to range between 2.0 days and 6.4 days (Backer, Klinkenberg, and Wallinga 2020), with large variations among patients, up to reported outliers of 24 days (Guan et al. 2020). For a number of viruses, during the incubation there is a time interval when the infected person is presymptomatic and is already contagious. For SARS-CoV-2 such a time window if there is, is presently unknown. Besides adopting masks, social distancing is recommended, with the aim to significantly reduce the probability of disease transmission. Again, for SARS-CoV-2 the practical rule of 1 m (or 3 ft) inter-person distance is presently adopted (Deller et al. 2008) since airborne transmission is one of the relevant paths of virus spread (Zhang et al. 2020). The above measures are particularly effective since there is growing evidence that the virus, unlike, e.g., flu, propagates via a superspreading mechanism that results in clusters of infection (Adam et al. 2020), in which the environmental factors play a relevant role.
Social distancing in airplane seat assignments for passenger groups
Published in Transportmetrica B: Transport Dynamics, 2022
Mostafa Salari, R. John Milne, Camelia Delcea, Liviu-Adrian Cotfas
In line with many other studies, we implement the proposed seating assignment on an Airbus A320 as shown in Figure 1, having one aisle, twenty rows, and three seats on each side of the row (Milne, Delcea, et al. 2019; Milne and Salari 2016; Salari, Milne, and Kattan 2019). We use the average seat width, aisle width, and seat pitch (the distance between seats in consecutive rows) reported by airlines to configure seating placement in an Airbus A320. These values are defined as 17.5, 22, and 32 inches (equivalent to 44.5, 55.8, and 81.28 centimeters) for seat width, aisle width, and seat pitch, respectively. We are interested in determining the seat locations that keep the social distancing advised by WHO among passengers on a flight. We employ the Euclidian method to calculate the distance between the centre of every two seats.2 Following the calculation of the distance between seats, we introduce a binary parameter that indicates whether the distance between two seats is less than or equal to 3.3 feet (equivalent to 1m). For instance, if the seat location where represents the row , side ( means left side and means right side) and seat ( means window seat; means middle seat, and means aisle seat) is in less than 3.3 feet from seat location , then the binary parameter is equal to 1 and zero otherwise. We select 3.3 feet to preserve safe distancing among passengers as advised by WHO, according to which people are required to keep at least 3.3 feet distance from each other to practice social distancing (WHO 2020). For instance, Figure 2 highlights seating locations for a one-member group, i.e. singleton passenger, and a family group of two passengers travelling together. The one-member group is seated in the aisle seat of row 4 on the right side of the airplane. The other group of passengers is sitting in the window and middle seats of row 15 on the left side of the airplane. The seating locations of passengers in those two groups are red-highlighted in Figure 2. The other seats less than 3.3 feet from these two groups are yellow-highlighted in the figure.