The interplay between and COVID-19 outbreaks in South Asia: Longitudinal trend analysis of surveillance data

Background: COVID-19 transmission rates in South Asia initially were under control when governments implemented health policies aimed at controlling the pandemic such as quarantines, travel bans, and border-, business-, and school-closures. Governments have since relaxed public health guidelines whi...

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Main Authors: Welch, Sarah B., Kulasekere, Dinushi Amanda, Prasad, Vara, Moss, Charles B., Murphy, Robert L., Achenbach, Chad J., Ison, Michael G., Resnick, Danielle, Singh, Lauren, White, Janine, Issa, Tariq Z., Culler, Kasen, Faber, Joshua Marco Mitchell, Boctor, Michael J., Mason, Maryann, Oehmke, James Francis, Post, Lori Ann
Format: Journal Article
Language:Inglés
Published: JMIR Publications 2021
Subjects:
Online Access:https://hdl.handle.net/10568/142658
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author Welch, Sarah B.
Kulasekere, Dinushi Amanda
Prasad, Vara
Moss, Charles B.
Murphy, Robert L.
Achenbach, Chad J.
Ison, Michael G.
Resnick, Danielle
Singh, Lauren
White, Janine
Issa, Tariq Z.
Culler, Kasen
Faber, Joshua Marco Mitchell
Boctor, Michael J.
Mason, Maryann
Oehmke, James Francis
Post, Lori Ann
author_browse Achenbach, Chad J.
Boctor, Michael J.
Culler, Kasen
Faber, Joshua Marco Mitchell
Ison, Michael G.
Issa, Tariq Z.
Kulasekere, Dinushi Amanda
Mason, Maryann
Moss, Charles B.
Murphy, Robert L.
Oehmke, James Francis
Post, Lori Ann
Prasad, Vara
Resnick, Danielle
Singh, Lauren
Welch, Sarah B.
White, Janine
author_facet Welch, Sarah B.
Kulasekere, Dinushi Amanda
Prasad, Vara
Moss, Charles B.
Murphy, Robert L.
Achenbach, Chad J.
Ison, Michael G.
Resnick, Danielle
Singh, Lauren
White, Janine
Issa, Tariq Z.
Culler, Kasen
Faber, Joshua Marco Mitchell
Boctor, Michael J.
Mason, Maryann
Oehmke, James Francis
Post, Lori Ann
author_sort Welch, Sarah B.
collection Repository of Agricultural Research Outputs (CGSpace)
description Background: COVID-19 transmission rates in South Asia initially were under control when governments implemented health policies aimed at controlling the pandemic such as quarantines, travel bans, and border-, business-, and school-closures. Governments have since relaxed public health guidelines which resulted in significant outbreaks moving the global epicenter of the COVID-19 pandemic to India. Systematic ongoing public health surveillance of the COVID-19 is needed to inform disease prevention to re-establish control of the pandemic within the region. Objective: To inform public health leaders about the state of the COVID-19 pandemic, how South Asia differs within and between countries and from other global regions and where immediate action is needed to control the outbreaks. Methods: We extracted 62 days of COVID-19 data from public health registries and calculated traditional and enhanced surveillance metrics. We use an empirical difference equation to measure the daily number of cases in South Asia as a function of the prior number of cases, the level of testing, and weekly shift variables based on a dynamic panel model that was estimated using the generalized method of moments approach by implementing the Arellano-Bond estimator in R. Results: Traditional surveillance metrics signal that South Asian countries have an alarming outbreak with India leading the region with 310,310 new daily cases using the 7-day moving average. Enhanced surveillance indicates that while Pakistan and Bangladesh still have a high daily number of new COVID-19 transmissions, 4,819 and 3,878, respectively, their speed of new infections declined from April 12-25, 2021 from 2.28 to 2.18 and 3.15 to 2.35 daily new infections per 100,000 population, respectively, signaling their outbreaks are contracting and heading in the right direction. In contrast, India’s speed of new infections per 100,000 population increased by 52% during the same time period from 14.79 to 22.49 new cases per day per 100,000 which constitutes an outbreak. Conclusions: Relaxed public health restrictions plus novel variants fueled the second wave of the COVID-19 pandemic in South Asia. Public health surveillance signals that shifts made to plus new variants correlate with a dramatic expansion in the pandemic requiring immediate action to mitigate the spread of COVID-19. Surveillance is needed to inform leaders if policies result in pandemic control.
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spelling CGSpace1426582025-02-24T06:47:48Z The interplay between and COVID-19 outbreaks in South Asia: Longitudinal trend analysis of surveillance data Welch, Sarah B. Kulasekere, Dinushi Amanda Prasad, Vara Moss, Charles B. Murphy, Robert L. Achenbach, Chad J. Ison, Michael G. Resnick, Danielle Singh, Lauren White, Janine Issa, Tariq Z. Culler, Kasen Faber, Joshua Marco Mitchell Boctor, Michael J. Mason, Maryann Oehmke, James Francis Post, Lori Ann data policies covid-19 health health surveillance health policies surveillance systems public health Background: COVID-19 transmission rates in South Asia initially were under control when governments implemented health policies aimed at controlling the pandemic such as quarantines, travel bans, and border-, business-, and school-closures. Governments have since relaxed public health guidelines which resulted in significant outbreaks moving the global epicenter of the COVID-19 pandemic to India. Systematic ongoing public health surveillance of the COVID-19 is needed to inform disease prevention to re-establish control of the pandemic within the region. Objective: To inform public health leaders about the state of the COVID-19 pandemic, how South Asia differs within and between countries and from other global regions and where immediate action is needed to control the outbreaks. Methods: We extracted 62 days of COVID-19 data from public health registries and calculated traditional and enhanced surveillance metrics. We use an empirical difference equation to measure the daily number of cases in South Asia as a function of the prior number of cases, the level of testing, and weekly shift variables based on a dynamic panel model that was estimated using the generalized method of moments approach by implementing the Arellano-Bond estimator in R. Results: Traditional surveillance metrics signal that South Asian countries have an alarming outbreak with India leading the region with 310,310 new daily cases using the 7-day moving average. Enhanced surveillance indicates that while Pakistan and Bangladesh still have a high daily number of new COVID-19 transmissions, 4,819 and 3,878, respectively, their speed of new infections declined from April 12-25, 2021 from 2.28 to 2.18 and 3.15 to 2.35 daily new infections per 100,000 population, respectively, signaling their outbreaks are contracting and heading in the right direction. In contrast, India’s speed of new infections per 100,000 population increased by 52% during the same time period from 14.79 to 22.49 new cases per day per 100,000 which constitutes an outbreak. Conclusions: Relaxed public health restrictions plus novel variants fueled the second wave of the COVID-19 pandemic in South Asia. Public health surveillance signals that shifts made to plus new variants correlate with a dramatic expansion in the pandemic requiring immediate action to mitigate the spread of COVID-19. Surveillance is needed to inform leaders if policies result in pandemic control. 2021-06-28 2024-05-22T12:10:50Z 2024-05-22T12:10:50Z Journal Article https://hdl.handle.net/10568/142658 en https://doi.org/10.2196/24248 https://doi.org/10.2196/25728 https://doi.org/10.2196/25830 Open Access JMIR Publications Welch, Sarah B.; Kulasekere, Dinushi Amanda; Prasad, Vara; Moss, Charles B.; Murphy, Robert Leo; Achenbach, Chad J.; Ison, Michael G.; Resnick, Danielle; Singh, Lauren; White, Janine; Issa, Tariq Z.; Culler, Kasen; Faber, Joshua Marco Mitchell; Boctor, Michael J.; Mason, Maryann; Oehmke, James Francis; and Post, Lori Ann. 2021. The interplay between and COVID-19 outbreaks in South Asia: Longitudinal trend analysis of surveillance data. JMIR Public Health and Surveillance 7(6): e24251. https://doi.org/10.2196/24251
spellingShingle data
policies
covid-19
health
health surveillance
health policies
surveillance systems
public health
Welch, Sarah B.
Kulasekere, Dinushi Amanda
Prasad, Vara
Moss, Charles B.
Murphy, Robert L.
Achenbach, Chad J.
Ison, Michael G.
Resnick, Danielle
Singh, Lauren
White, Janine
Issa, Tariq Z.
Culler, Kasen
Faber, Joshua Marco Mitchell
Boctor, Michael J.
Mason, Maryann
Oehmke, James Francis
Post, Lori Ann
The interplay between and COVID-19 outbreaks in South Asia: Longitudinal trend analysis of surveillance data
title The interplay between and COVID-19 outbreaks in South Asia: Longitudinal trend analysis of surveillance data
title_full The interplay between and COVID-19 outbreaks in South Asia: Longitudinal trend analysis of surveillance data
title_fullStr The interplay between and COVID-19 outbreaks in South Asia: Longitudinal trend analysis of surveillance data
title_full_unstemmed The interplay between and COVID-19 outbreaks in South Asia: Longitudinal trend analysis of surveillance data
title_short The interplay between and COVID-19 outbreaks in South Asia: Longitudinal trend analysis of surveillance data
title_sort interplay between and covid 19 outbreaks in south asia longitudinal trend analysis of surveillance data
topic data
policies
covid-19
health
health surveillance
health policies
surveillance systems
public health
url https://hdl.handle.net/10568/142658
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