Question: what are the benefits and risks of re-opening schools in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic?

Title: Children of COVID-19: pawns, pathfinders or partners? Content: Countries throughout the world are counting the health and socioeconomic costs of the COVID-19 pandemic, including the strategies necessary to contain it. Profound consequences from social isolation are beginning to emerge, and there is an urgency about charting a path to recovery, albeit to a ‘new normal’ that mitigates them. Children have not suffered as much from the direct effects of COVID-19 infection as older adults. Still, there is mounting evidence that their health and welfare are being adversely affected. Closure of schools has been a critical component of social isolation but has a far broader impact than the diminution of educational opportunities, as important as these are. Reopening of schools is therefore essential to recovery, with some countries already tentatively implementing it. Children’s interests are vital considerations in any recovery plan, but the question remains as to how to address them within the context of how society views children; should they be regarded as pawns, pathfinders or partners in this enterprise?

Title: Children and the COVID-19 pandemic Content: As a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, many school districts have closed for the remainder of the academic year. These closures are unfortunate because, for many students, schools are their only source of trauma-informed care and supports. When schools reopen, they must develop a comprehensive plan to address the potential mental health needs of their students. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2020 APA, all rights reserved).

Title: Children and the COVID-19 pandemic. Content: As a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, many school districts have closed for the remainder of the academic year. These closures are unfortunate because, for many students, schools are their only source of trauma-informed care and supports. When schools reopen, they must develop a comprehensive plan to address the potential mental health needs of their students. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2020 APA, all rights reserved).

Title: Children of COVID-19: pawns, pathfinders or partners? Content: Countries throughout the world are counting the health and socioeconomic costs of the COVID-19 pandemic, including the strategies necessary to contain it. Profound consequences from social isolation are beginning to emerge, and there is an urgency about charting a path to recovery, albeit to a 'new normal' that mitigates them. Children have not suffered as much from the direct effects of COVID-19 infection as older adults. Still, there is mounting evidence that their health and welfare are being adversely affected. Closure of schools has been a critical component of social isolation but has a far broader impact than the diminution of educational opportunities, as important as these are. Reopening of schools is therefore essential to recovery, with some countries already tentatively implementing it. Children's interests are vital considerations in any recovery plan, but the question remains as to how to address them within the context of how society views children; should they be regarded as pawns, pathfinders or partners in this enterprise?

Title: COVID-19 Related School Closings and Risk of Weight Gain Among Children. Content: The COVID-19 pandemic is causing substantial morbidity and mortality, straining health care systems, shutting down economies, and closing school districts. While it is a priority to mitigate its immediate impact, we want to call attention to the pandemic's longer-term effect on children's health: COVID-19, via these school closures, may exacerbate the epidemic of childhood obesity and increase disparities in obesity risk. In many areas of the U.S., the COVID-19 pandemic has closed schools and some of these school systems are not expected to re-open this school year. The experiences in Hong Kong, Taiwan and Singapore suggest that social distancing orders, if lifted after short periods, will have to be periodically re-instated to control COVID-19 flare ups. In short, we anticipate that the COVID-19 pandemic will likely double out-of-school time this year for many children in the U.S. and will exacerbate the risk factors for weight gain associated with summer recess.

Title: Infection prevention guidelines and considerations for paediatric risk groups when reopening primary schools during COVID-19 pandemic, Norway, April 2020 Content: In response to the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic, most countries implemented school closures. In Norway, schools closed on 13 March 2020. The evidence of effect on disease transmission was limited, while negative consequences were evident. Before reopening, risk-assessment for paediatric risk groups was performed, concluding that most children can attend school with few conditions requiring preventative homeschooling. We here present infection prevention and control guidelines for primary schools and recommendations for paediatric risk groups.

Title: COVID-19 and the re-opening of schools: a policy maker’s dilemma Content: The epidemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) broke out in Wuhan, China, in December 2019 and rapidly spread across the world. In order to counter this epidemic, several countries put in place different restrictive measures, such as the school’s closure and a total lockdown. However, as the knowledge on the disease progresses, clinical evidence showed that children mainly have asymptomatic or mild disease and it has been suggested that they are also less likely to spread the virus. Moreover, the lockdown and the school closure could have negative consequences on children, affecting their social life, their education and their mental health. As many countries have already entered or are planning a phase of gradual lifting of the containment measures of social distancing, it seems plausible that the re-opening of nursery schools and primary schools could be considered a policy to be implemented at an early stage of recovery efforts, putting in place measures to do it safely, such as the maintenance of social distance, the reorganisation of classes into smaller groups, the provision of adequate sanitization of spaces, furniture and toys, the prompt identification of cases in the school environment and their tracing. Therefore, policy makers have the task of balancing pros and cons of the school re-opening strategy, taking into account psychological, educational and social consequences for children and their families. Another issue to be considered is represented by socio-economic disparities and inequalities which could be amplified by school’s closure.

Title: COVID-19 and the re-opening of schools: a policy maker's dilemma Content: The epidemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) broke out in Wuhan, China, in December 2019 and rapidly spread across the world. In order to counter this epidemic, several countries put in place different restrictive measures, such as the school's closure and a total lockdown. However, as the knowledge on the disease progresses, clinical evidence showed that children mainly have asymptomatic or mild disease and it has been suggested that they are also less likely to spread the virus. Moreover, the lockdown and the school closure could have negative consequences on children, affecting their social life, their education and their mental health. As many countries have already entered or are planning a phase of gradual lifting of the containment measures of social distancing, it seems plausible that the re-opening of nursery schools and primary schools could be considered a policy to be implemented at an early stage of recovery efforts, putting in place measures to do it safely, such as the maintenance of social distance, the reorganisation of classes into smaller groups, the provision of adequate sanitization of spaces, furniture and toys, the prompt identification of cases in the school environment and their tracing. Therefore, policy makers have the task of balancing pros and cons of the school re-opening strategy, taking into account psychological, educational and social consequences for children and their families. Another issue to be considered is represented by socio-economic disparities and inequalities which could be amplified by school's closure.

Title: Shut and re-open: the role of schools in the spread of COVID-19 in Europe Content: We investigate the effect of school closure and subsequent reopening on the transmission of COVID-19, by considering Denmark, Norway, Sweden, and German states as case studies. By comparing the growth rates in daily hospitalisations or confirmed cases under different interventions, we provide evidence that the effect of school closure is visible as a reduction in the growth rate approximately 9 days after implementation. Limited school attendance, such as older students sitting exams or the partial return of younger year groups, does not appear to significantly affect community transmission. A large-scale reopening of schools while controlling or suppressing the epidemic appears feasible in countries such as Denmark or Norway, where community transmission is generally low. However, school reopening can contribute to significant increases in the growth rate in countries like Germany, where community transmission is relatively high. Our findings underscore the need for a cautious evaluation of reopening strategies that ensure low classroom occupancy and a solid infrastructure to quickly identify and isolate new infections.

Title: Little Risk of the COVID-19 Resurgence on Students in China (outside Hubei) Caused by School Reopening Content: Objective: School reopening has not yet started in China where the COVID-19 outbreak has reached ending stage, largely due to a great concern about COVID-19 infections on students. We attempted to quantitatively evaluate the risk of COVID-19 infections on students caused by school reopening. Study design: We collected the data of the numbers of teachers, population size and newly confirmed COVID-19 cases in the past 14 days in typical provinces/cities of China, and then analyzed the risk of COVID-19 infections in schools with respect to each province/city. Methods: A step-by-step procedure was explored to calculate the probability of COVID-19 infections on students as transmitted from infected teachers. Two critical assumptions for analysis were proposed: (i) only locally generated cases were counted while imported cases were omitted; (ii) the secondary attack rate of the COVID-19 virus in schools is similar to that in households in China, ranging from 3-10%. Results: The probability of COVID-19 resurgence within one week on students of primary, middle and high schools in China (outside Hubei) is extremely low (<0.2%) in each province/city, and such probability can be updated daily and weekly based on the newly confirmed cases in the past 14 days. In some areas without newly confirmed cases in the past 14 days, the risk is zero. Conclusions: Our work provides guidance for local governments to make risk level-based policies for school reopening. Currently, the risk of COVID-19 infections on students is extremely low in China (outside Hubei) and therefore school reopening can be initiated without the endanger of infections on students.

Title: COVID-19 as a catalyst for educational change Content: The massive damages of COVID-19 may be incalculable. But in the spirit of never wasting a good crisis, COVID-19 represents an opportunity to rethink education. The rethinking should not be about improving schooling, but should focus on the what, how, and where of learning. This article highlights some of the questions that schools can ask as they reimagine post-COVID education.

Title: Planning of School Teaching during COVID-19 Content: More than one billion students are out of school because of Covid-19, forced to a remote learning that has several drawbacks and has been hurriedly arranged; in addition, most countries are currently uncertain on how to plan school activities for the 2020-2021 school year; all of this makes learning and education some of the biggest world issues of the current pandemic. Unfortunately, due to the length of the incubation period of Covid-19, full opening of schools seems to be impractical till a vaccine is available. In order to support the possibility of some in-person learning, we study a mathematical model of the diffusion of the epidemic due to school opening, and evaluate plans aimed at containing the extra Covid-19 cases due to school activities while ensuring an adequate number of in-class learning periods. We consider a SEAIR model with an external source of infection and a suitable loss function; after a realistic parameter selection, we numerically determine optimal school opening strategies by simulated annealing. It turns out that blended models, with almost periodic alternations of in-class and remote teaching days or weeks, are generally optimal. Besides containing Covid-19 diffusion, these solutions could be pedagogically acceptable, and could also become a driving model for the society at large. In a prototypical example, the optimal strategy results in the school opening 90 days out of 200 with the number of Covid-19 cases among the individuals related to the school increasing by about 66%, instead of the about 250% increase that would have been a consequence of full opening.

Title: The impact of school reopening on the spread of COVID-19 in England Content: Background: In the UK, cases of COVID-19 have been declining since mid-April and there is good evidence to suggest that the effective reproduction number has dropped below 1, leading to a multi-phase relaxation plan for the country to emerge from lockdown. As part of this staggered process, primary schools are scheduled to partially reopen on 1st June. Evidence from a range of sources suggests that children are, in general, only mildly affected by the disease and have low mortality rates, though there is less certainty regarding children's role in transmission. Therefore, there is wide discussion on the impact of reopening schools. Methods: We compare eight strategies for reopening primary and secondary schools in England from 1st June, focusing on the return of particular year groups and the associated epidemic consequences. This is assessed through model simulation, modifying a previously developed dynamic transmission model for SARS-CoV-2. We quantify how the process of reopening schools affected contact patterns and anticipated secondary infections, the relative change in R according to the extent of school reopening, and determine the public health impact via estimated change in clinical cases and its sensitivity to decreases in adherence post strict lockdown. Findings: Whilst reopening schools, in any form, results in more mixing between children, an increase in R and hence transmission of the disease, the magnitude of that increase can be low dependent upon the age-groups that return to school and the behaviour of the remaining population. We predict that reopening schools in a way that allows half class sizes or that is focused on younger children is unlikely to push R above one, although there is noticeable variation between the regions of the country. Given that older children have a greater number of social contacts and hence a greater potential for transmission, our findings suggest reopening secondary schools results in larger increases in case burden than only reopening primary schools; reopening both generates the largest increase and could push R above one in some regions. The impact of less social-distancing in the rest of the population, generally has far larger effects than reopening schools and exacerbates the impacts of reopening. Discussion: Our work indicates that any reopening of schools will result in increased mixing and infection amongst children and the wider population, although the opening of schools alone is unlikely to push the value of R above one. However, impacts of other recent relaxations of lockdown measures are yet to be quantified, suggesting some regions may be closer to the critical threshold that would lead to a growth in cases. Given the uncertainties, in part due to limited data on COVID-19 in children, school reopening should be carefully monitored. Ultimately, the decision about reopening classrooms is a difficult trade-off between increased epidemiological consequences and the emotional, educational and developmental needs of children.

Title: Education in the Context of the Pandemic: A Look at the Case of Portugal Content: The COVID-19 pandemic is causing structural and irreversible changes and transformations in individuals, families, companies, countries and in the world There will be a society before and after COVID-19 Education is a pillar of sustainability and of society's future which is also being damaged by this world crisis Professionals, students and family, the government, the educational system are looking for answers in record time This brief article aims to share Portugal's experience, a country marked by a series of successive reforms of the national education system

Title: Expected impact of reopening schools after lockdown on COVID-19 epidemic in Ile-de-France Content: As several countries around the world are planning exit strategies to progressively lift the rigid social restrictions implemented with lockdown, different options are being chosen regarding the closure or reopening of schools. We evaluate the expected impact of reopening schools in lIe-de-France region after the withdrawal of lockdown currently scheduled for May 11, 2020. We explore several scenarios of partial, progressive, or full school reopening, coupled with moderate social distancing interventions and large-scale tracing, testing, and isolation. Accounting for current uncertainty on the role of children in COVID-19 epidemic, we test different hypotheses on children's transmissibility distinguishing between younger children (pre-school and primary school age) and adolescents (middle and high school age). Reopening schools after lifting lockdown will likely lead to an increase in the number of COVID-19 cases in the following 2 months, even with lower transmissibility of children, yet protocols exist that would allow maintaining the epidemic under control without saturating the healthcare system. With pre-schools and primary schools in session starting May 11, ICU occupation would reach at most 72% [55,83]% (95% probability ranges) of a 1,500-bed capacity (here foreseen as the routine capacity restored in the region post-first wave) if no other school level reopens before summer or if middle and high schools reopen one month later through a progressive protocol (increasing attendance week by week). Full attendance of adolescents at school starting in June would overwhelm the ICU system (138% [118,159]% occupation). Reopening all schools on May 11 would likely lead to a second wave similar to the one recently experienced, except if maximum attendance is limited to 50% for both younger children and adolescents. Based on the estimated situation on May 11, no substantial difference in the epidemic risk is predicted between progressive and prompt reopening of pre-schools and primary schools, thus allowing full attendance of younger children mostly in need of resuming learning and development. Reopening would require however large-scale trace and testing to promptly isolate cases, in addition to moderate social distancing interventions. Full attendance in middle and high schools is instead not recommended. Findings are consistent across different assumptions on the relative transmissibility of younger children and for small increase of the reproductive number possibly due to decreasing compliance to lockdown.

Title: School closure, COVID‐19 and lunch programme: Unprecedented undernutrition crisis in low‐middle income countries Content: The coronavirus disease 2019 pandemic has affected nearly 70% of children and teenagers around the world due to school closure policies. School closure is implemented widely in order to prevent viral transmission and its impact on the broader community, based on preliminary recommendations and evidence from influenza. However, there is debate with regard to the effectiveness of school closures. Growing evidence suggests that a child's SARS‐CoV‐2 infection is often mild or asymptomatic and that children may not be major SARS‐CoV‐2 transmitters; thus, it is questionable if school closures prevent transmission significantly. This question is important as a majority of children in low‐ and middle‐income countries depend on free school meals; unexpected long‐term school closure may adversely impact nutrition and educational outcomes. Food insecurity is expected to be higher during the pandemic. In this viewpoint, we argue for a more thorough exploration of potential adverse impacts of school closures in low‐ and middle‐income countries and recommend actions to ensure that the health and learning needs of vulnerable populations are met in this time of crisis.

Title: Initial Coronavirus Disease–2019 Closure Strategies Adopted by a Convenience Sample of US School Districts: Directions for Future Research Content: School closures are an important strategy to mitigate the impacts of a pandemic. But an optimal approach to transitioning from in-person to distance learning approaches is lacking. We analyzed a convenience sample of public K-12 schools in the early weeks of the COVID-19 pandemic in the United States. This initial snapshot provides some insights to inform future research into the variation of strategies across school districts, and would benefit from more rigorous methods to determine true correlations between demographic and geographic factors. Additionally, many of these strategies have evolved in response to ongoing and prolonged public health social distancing measures implemented after this analysis was conducted.

Title: Initial Coronavirus Disease-2019 Closure Strategies Adopted by a Convenience Sample of US School Districts: Directions for Future Research Content: School closures are an important strategy to mitigate the impacts of a pandemic. But an optimal approach to transitioning from in-person to distance learning approaches is lacking. We analyzed a convenience sample of public K-12 schools in the early weeks of the COVID-19 pandemic in the United States. This initial snapshot provides some insights to inform future research into the variation of strategies across school districts, and would benefit from more rigorous methods to determine true correlations between demographic and geographic factors. Additionally, many of these strategies have evolved in response to ongoing and prolonged public health social distancing measures implemented after this analysis was conducted.

Title: Back to school: Safe for children with underlying medical conditions Content: As schools reopen as a result of low community transmission rates of COVID-19, parents and teachers will have understandable concerns about the risks to students and staff.

Title: Back to school: Safe for children with underlying medical conditions. Content: As schools reopen as a result of low community transmission rates of COVID-19, parents and teachers will have understandable concerns about the risks to students and staff.

Title: Determining the optimal strategy for reopening schools, work and society in the UK: balancing earlier opening and the impact of test and trace strategies with the risk of occurrence of a secondary COVID-19 pandemic wave Content: Background In order to slow down the spread of SARS-CoV-2, the virus causing the COVID-19 pandemic, the UK government has imposed strict physical distancing (lockdown) measures including school 'dismissals' since 23 March 2020. As evidence is emerging that these measures may have slowed the spread of the pandemic, it is important to assess the impact of any changes in strategy, including scenarios for school reopening and broader relaxation of social distancing. This work uses an individual-based model to predict the impact of a suite of possible strategies to reopen schools in the UK, including that currently proposed by the UK government. Methods We use Covasim, a stochastic agent-based model for transmission of COVID-19, calibrated to the UK epidemic. The model describes individuals' contact networks stratified as household, school, work and community layers, and uses demographic and epidemiological data from the UK. We simulate a range of different school reopening strategies with a society-wide relaxation of lockdown measures and in the presence of different non-pharmaceutical interventions, to estimate the number of new infections, cumulative cases and deaths, as well as the effective reproduction number with different strategies. To account for uncertainties within the stochastic simulation, we also simulated different levels of infectiousness of children and young adults under 20 years old compared to older ages. Findings We found that with increased levels of testing of people (between 25% and 72% of symptomatic people tested at some point during an active COVID-19 infection depending on scenarios) and effective contact-tracing and isolation for infected individuals, an epidemic rebound may be prevented across all reopening scenarios, with the effective reproduction number (R) remaining below one and the cumulative number of new infections and deaths significantly lower than they would be if testing did not increase. If UK schools reopen in phases from June 2020, prevention of a second wave would require testing 51% of symptomatic infections, tracing of 40% of their contacts, and isolation of symptomatic and diagnosed cases. However, without such measures, reopening of schools together with gradual relaxing of the lockdown measures are likely to induce a secondary pandemic wave, as are other scenarios for reopening. When infectiousness of <20 year olds was varied from 100% to 50% of that of older ages, our findings remained unchanged. Interpretation To prevent a secondary COVID-19 wave, relaxation of social distancing including reopening schools in the UK must be implemented alongside an active large-scale population-wide testing of symptomatic individuals and effective tracing of their contacts, followed by isolation of symptomatic and diagnosed individuals. Such combined measures have a greater likelihood of controlling the transmission of SARS-CoV-2 and preventing a large number of COVID-19 deaths than reopening schools and society with the current level of implementation of testing and isolation of infected individuals.

Title: School closure, COVID-19 and lunch programme: Unprecedented undernutrition crisis in low-middle income countries Content: The coronavirus disease 2019 pandemic has affected nearly 70% of children and teenagers around the world due to school closure policies. School closure is implemented widely in order to prevent viral transmission and its impact on the broader community, based on preliminary recommendations and evidence from influenza. However, there is debate with regard to the effectiveness of school closures. Growing evidence suggests that a child's SARS-CoV-2 infection is often mild or asymptomatic and that children may not be major SARS-CoV-2 transmitters; thus, it is questionable if school closures prevent transmission significantly. This question is important as a majority of children in low- and middle-income countries depend on free school meals; unexpected long-term school closure may adversely impact nutrition and educational outcomes. Food insecurity is expected to be higher during the pandemic. In this viewpoint, we argue for a more thorough exploration of potential adverse impacts of school closures in low- and middle-income countries and recommend actions to ensure that the health and learning needs of vulnerable populations are met in this time of crisis.

Title: Dataset of Ex-pat Teachers in Southeast Asia's Intention to Leave due to the COVID-19 pandemic Content: The COVID-19 pandemic exerted an adverse influence on the global education system, especially since starting school lockdown. The growth of teacher unemployment figures climbed double-digit and spawned these unexpected sequels. For instance, while native teachers seemed indisposed to leave the profession with the aim of seeking another more profited and seasonal jobs, many ex-pat teachers presented themselves with moving or stayed dilemma in the way the government salvaged their situation. In preference with the ex-pat teacher's case, we elucidated further throughout an e-survey in the International Baccalaureate community on Facebook from 4 to 11 April 2020 for 18,000 ex-pat teachers, who are teaching at Southeast Asia. This dataset includes 307 responses of ex-pat teachers who are staying in Singapore, Thailand, Vietnam, the Philippines, and Indonesia during the pandemic. The dataset comprises (i) Survey partakers' Demographics; (ii) Ex-pat teachers' perceptions in the relation of national, regional and school plans were afoot to the pandemic; (iii) The degree of attachment of ex-pat teacher to their current society, the ex-pat community, friends, and families during the pandemic time; (iv) Ex-pat teachers' embryo intention to reconsider their current teaching location.

Title: Überlegungen zur Lockerung des Lockdowns Content: The fight against the coronavirus pandemic has led to an insulation of social and economic life and will have considerable economic consequences. Important areas of the industry and service sectors were partially or completely shutdown. A resumption of activity should happen as soon as possible, once the medical pre-conditions have been established and are met. This requires a clear exit strategy and following several steps to return to previous welfare and growth data levels. After securing survival during this crisis via various liquidity lines and bridging loans, the economy’s restart requires the relaunch of public infrastructure, especially of schools and kindergartens. To facilitate a coordinated and synchronised restart of complex industrial value chains, we need clear signals on a planned schedule. A tax policy driven departure signal and a demand side focused growth programme could make an important contribution to a new economic dynamic after the crisis.

Title: Education and the COVID-19 pandemic Content: The COVID-19 pandemic is a huge challenge to education systems. This Viewpoint offers guidance to teachers, institutional heads, and officials on addressing the crisis. What preparations should institutions make in the short time available and how do they address students' needs by level and field of study? Reassuring students and parents is a vital element of institutional response. In ramping up capacity to teach remotely, schools and colleges should take advantage of asynchronous learning, which works best in digital formats. As well as the normal classroom subjects, teaching should include varied assignments and work that puts COVID-19 in a global and historical context. When constructing curricula, designing student assessment first helps teachers to focus. Finally, this Viewpoint suggests flexible ways to repair the damage to students' learning trajectories once the pandemic is over and gives a list of resources.

Title: Education and the COVID-19 pandemic Content: The COVID-19 pandemic is a huge challenge to education systems. This Viewpoint offers guidance to teachers, institutional heads, and officials on addressing the crisis. What preparations should institutions make in the short time available and how do they address students’ needs by level and field of study? Reassuring students and parents is a vital element of institutional response. In ramping up capacity to teach remotely, schools and colleges should take advantage of asynchronous learning, which works best in digital formats. As well as the normal classroom subjects, teaching should include varied assignments and work that puts COVID-19 in a global and historical context. When constructing curricula, designing student assessment first helps teachers to focus. Finally, this Viewpoint suggests flexible ways to repair the damage to students’ learning trajectories once the pandemic is over and gives a list of resources.

Title: Dataset of Vietnamese teachers’ perspectives and perceived support during the COVID-19 pandemic Content: The COVID-19 pandemic has caused unprecedented damage to the educational system worldwide. Besides the measurable economic impacts in the short-term and long-term, there is intangible destruction within educational institutions. In particular, teachers – the most critical intellectual resources of any schools – have to face various types of financial, physical, and mental struggles due to COVID-19. To capture the current context of more than one million Vietnamese teachers during COVID-19, we distributed an e-survey to more than 2,500 randomly selected teachers from two major teacher communities on Facebook from 6th to 11th April 2020. From over 373 responses, we excluded the observations which violated our cross-check questions and retained 294 observations for further analysis. This dataset includes: (i) Demographics of participants; (ii) Teachers' perspectives regarding the operation of teaching activities during the pandemic; (iii) Teachers' received support from their schools, government bodies, other stakeholders such as teacher unions, and parents' associations; and (iv) teachers' evaluation of school readiness toward digital transformation. Further, the dataset was supplemented with an additional question on the teachers' primary source of professional development activities during the pandemic.

Title: COVID-19 and schooling in South Africa: Who should go back to school first? Content: The COVID-19 pandemic is the largest social and economic shock of our lifetimes. As governments grapple with their responses to the virus, more than half the world’s countries have closed their schools and severely limited almost all forms of public life. This will have a profound impact on children, both now and in the decade to come. As many countries start to send children back to school, a question arises: who should go back to school first? This Viewpoint addresses that question in the context of a middle-income country, South Africa. Based on a review of much of the evidence available at the time of publication, it concludes that the youngest children are least susceptible to harm from COVID-19, are less likely to spread the virus than adults, and also have the most to lose by being out of school. Hence, they should be the ones to return to school first.

Title: The Coronavirus Pandemic and Lessons Learned in Preschools in Norway, Sweden and the United States: OMEP Policy Forum Content: The novel coronavirus, also known as COVID-19, has moved rapidly across the world in 2020. This article reports on the recent consequences of the pandemic for early childhood education in Sweden, Norway, and the United States. The authors illustrate the effects of the pandemic on preschools in their countries, against a backdrop of frequent changes in infection and mortality rates, epidemiological understandings, government strategies, and mitigation strategies regarding preschool closures. Teachers report their experiences and actions in specific early childhood education settings, across the three national contexts. These experiential snapshots identify program priorities, parents’ and children’s reactions, and the commitment and concerns of teachers. The conversations reveal culturally situated similarities of early childhood educational practices but also differences across contexts. Teachers report on the challenges of their experiences but also benefits for their practice and how they engage with children and their families. Ideas about future preparedness for such pandemics are also discussed.

Title: Helping children cope with the COVID-19 pandemic Content: Numerous societal changes in response to the COVID-19 pandemic, such as school closings and event cancellations, have caused anxiety and fear for children and young people. There are ways to help young people cope with the current situation including establishing an open dialogue, creating a structured daily routine with a schedule with assigned roles, and using social media and video conferencing to remain socially connected.

Title: Helping children cope with the COVID-19 pandemic. Content: Numerous societal changes in response to the COVID-19 pandemic, such as school closings and event cancellations, have caused anxiety and fear for children and young people. There are ways to help young people cope with the current situation including establishing an open dialogue, creating a structured daily routine with a schedule with assigned roles, and using social media and video conferencing to remain socially connected.

Title: School’s Out for COVID-19: 50 Ways BCBA Trainees in Special Education Settings Can Accrue Independent Fieldwork Experience Hours During the Pandemic Content: Due to the COVID-19 pandemic and nationwide executive orders closing schools, many trainees completing their supervised independent fieldwork in educational settings lost the ability to accrue hours linked to restricted activities of a therapeutic and instructional nature with students (i.e., clients). Given the impact on trainees of the pandemic restrictions, we present 50 suggestions for trainees in school settings to continue to accrue hours for both restricted and unrestricted activities throughout the course of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Title: COVID-19 , School Closings and Weight Gain. Content: We found the publication on "COVID-19 Related School Closings and Risk of Weight Gain Among Children" to be interesting.1 Rundle et al. noted that "we anticipate that the COVID-19 pandemic will likely double out-of-school time this year for many children in the U.S. and will exacerbate the risk factors for weight gain associated with summer recess."1 In fact, there are several factors relating to nutritional status of the children. We would like to share observations from Thailand, the second country in the timeline of COVID-19.2 In Thailand, school aged children in rural areas where COVID-19 disease outbreak exists are usually underweight.3 Thus, school closing means the children have to live with poor parents adding to economic problems of the family.

Title: How Much May COVID‐19 School Closures Increase Childhood Obesity? Content: In a recent paper entitled, “COVID‐19 Related School Closings and Risk of Weight Gain Among Children” Rundle et al. (2020) proposed the COVID‐19 pandemic may increase obesity among American children because the pandemic, “will likely double out‐of‐school time this year for many children in the United States and will exacerbate the risk factors for weight gain associated with summer recess” (pg. 1). I add support to Rundle et al.’s argument by demonstrating that doubling of out‐of‐school time alone may lead to a sizable increase in childhood obesity.

Title: Education as the path to a sustainable recovery from COVID-19 Content: COVID-19 has disrupted education for millions of children across the globe. The education community is re-imagining and re-designing to build back better. This Viewpoint takes the principles behind UNESCO’s Futures of Education initiative to highlight their importance in post-COVID-19 recovery. The pandemic has shown how communities can come together to educate children. The article argues that, post-COVID-19, education systems should recognize community-driven support systems, use technology to overcome the digital divide in learning, and focus more on SDG 4.7 and its links to climate crises.

Title: How Much May COVID-19 School Closures Increase Childhood Obesity? Content: In a recent paper entitled, "COVID-19 Related School Closings and Risk of Weight Gain Among Children" Rundle et al. (2020) proposed the COVID-19 pandemic may increase obesity among American children because the pandemic, "will likely double out-of-school time this year for many children in the United States and will exacerbate the risk factors for weight gain associated with summer recess" (pg. 1). I add support to Rundle et al.'s argument by demonstrating that doubling of out-of-school time alone may lead to a sizable increase in childhood obesity.

Title: How much leeway is there to relax COVID-19 control measures? Content: Following successful widespread non-pharmaceutical interventions aiming to control COVID-19, many jurisdictions are moving towards reopening economies and borders. Given that little immunity has developed in most populations, re-establishing higher contact rates within and between populations carries substantial risks. Using a Bayesian epidemiological model, we estimate the leeway to reopen in a range of national and regional jurisdictions that have experienced different COVID-19 epidemics. We estimate the risks associated with different levels of reopening and the likely burden of new cases due to introductions from other jurisdictions. We find widely varying leeway to reopen, high risks of exceeding past peak sizes, and high possible burdens per introduced case per week, up to hundreds in some jurisdictions. We recommend a cautious approach to reopening economies and borders, coupled with strong monitoring for changes in transmission.

Title: Debate: COVID-19 and psychological well-being of children and adolescents in Italy Content: Italy was the first country in Europe to deal with COVID-19. Measures taken by the government to contain the spread of the virus were based mainly on quarantine and social distancing, with dramatic economic, social and psychological consequences. Since March, Italian children and adolescents are facing school closures, which have caused a disruption in the daily lives of millions of young people and their families. To date, despite the slow reopening, the government has decided to maintain school closures for the entire academic year, leaving the future of young people in uncertainty. There is already some evidence that quarantine and social isolation are having negative impact on children's and adolescents' psychological well-being. Moreover, this situation will mainly affect those children and adolescents with pre-existing vulnerabilities and those suffering of mental disorders. It is imperative to keep young people's needs at the core of reconstruction plans, allowing them to return to school safely, and providing them with some strategies to heal and dealing with this stressful and potentially traumatic situation.

Title: Debate: COVID-19 and psychological well-being of children and adolescents in Italy. Content: Italy was the first country in Europe to deal with COVID-19. Measures taken by the government to contain the spread of the virus were based mainly on quarantine and social distancing, with dramatic economic, social and psychological consequences. Since March, Italian children and adolescents are facing school closures, which have caused a disruption in the daily lives of millions of young people and their families. To date, despite the slow reopening, the government has decided to maintain school closures for the entire academic year, leaving the future of young people in uncertainty. There is already some evidence that quarantine and social isolation are having negative impact on children's and adolescents' psychological well-being. Moreover, this situation will mainly affect those children and adolescents with pre-existing vulnerabilities and those suffering of mental disorders. It is imperative to keep young people's needs at the core of reconstruction plans, allowing them to return to school safely, and providing them with some strategies to heal and dealing with this stressful and potentially traumatic situation.

Title: No evidence of secondary transmission of COVID-19 from children attending school in Ireland, 2020 Content: As many countries begin to lift some of the restrictions to contain COVID-19 spread, lack of evidence of transmission in the school setting remains. We examined Irish notifications of SARS-CoV2 in the school setting before school closures on 12 March 2020 and identified no paediatric transmission. This adds to current evidence that children do not appear to be drivers of transmission, and we argue that reopening schools should be considered safe accompanied by certain measures.

Title: Returning to School: Separation Problems and Anxiety in the Age of Pandemics Content: The shift to the postpandemic school environment will cause dramatic changes and is likely to increase separation problems. In this article, we look at the anxiety problems that some parents and their children might experience when school reopens after the COVID-19 lockdown. Using a behavioral theory of development, we provide suggestions for how to handle the departure and separation problems that may emerge as parents drop their children off at school. Many parents are unsure about how to handle anxiety or fear as their children return to school or have to visit other environments outside their homes. Social distancing has caused families to develop stronger dependencies at home and to create new routines that vary, in many instances greatly, from their prepandemic routines. Families are adjusting to the new “normal.” They are keeping their children busy with schoolwork as best they can. In particular, families have likely developed close attachment relationships. Families have been struggling with an unprecedented lockdown, and for many parents and their children, this extended period of family confinement and severe restrictions has been especially stressful, and the timing for returning to school is uncertain. We emphasize here that parents can be responsive to their children’s needs, plan ahead, provide reassurance, and depart firmly without vacillating, and we provide other tips to avoid inadvertently shaping children’s negative or anxiety behaviors as they go back to school. We offer some specific advice for parents and teachers to follow to prevent the departure and separation problems that typically develop during challenging behavioral interactions in school settings.

Title: Letter to the Editor: Assessing the Long-Term Potential of Relaxing Regulations: Should We Go Back to Business as Usual? Content: The response to the COVID-19 pandemic resulted in reallocation of health care resources and removal of barriers to deliver expedited care to those in need. This might be a unique moment in history to reconsider the regulations within our health care system that significantly increase its cost.

Title: Daily emotional well‐being during the COVID‐19 pandemic Content: The COVID‐19 outbreak has become one of the largest public health crises of our time. Governments have responded by implementing self‐isolation and physical distancing measures that have profoundly impacted daily life throughout the world. In this study, we aimed to investigate how people experience the activities, interactions, and settings of their lives during the pandemic. The sample (N = 604) was assessed in Ireland on the 25 March 2020, following the closure of schools and non‐essential businesses. We examined within‐person variance in emotional well‐being and how people spend their time. We found that while most time was spent in the home (74%), time spent outdoors (8%) was associated with markedly raised positive affect and reduced negative emotions. Exercising, going for walks, gardening, pursuing hobbies, and taking care of children were the activities associated with the greatest affective benefits. Home‐schooling children and obtaining information about COVID‐19 were ranked lowest of all activities in terms of emotional experience. These findings highlight activities that may play a protective role in relation to well‐being during the pandemic, the importance of setting limits for exposure to COVID‐19‐related media coverage, and the need for greater educational supports to facilitate home‐schooling during this challenging period.

Title: Challenges of COVID-19 in children in low- and middle-income countries Content: As the coronavirus pandemic extends to low and middle income countries (LMICs), there are growing concerns about the risk of coronavirus disease (COVID-19) in populations with high prevalence of comorbidities, the impact on health and economies more broadly and the capacity of existing health systems to manage the additional burden of COVID-19. The direct effects of COVID are less of a concern in children, who seem to be largely asymptomatic or to develop mild illness as occurs in high income countries; however children in LMICs constitute a high proportion of the population and may have a high prevalence of risk factors for severe lower respiratory infection such as HIV or malnutrition. Further diversion of resources from child health to address the pandemic among adults may further impact on care for children. Poor living conditions in LMICs including lack of sanitation, running water and overcrowding may facilitate transmission of SARS-CoV-2. The indirect effects of the pandemic on child health are of considerable concern, including increasing poverty levels, disrupted schooling, lack of access to school feeding schemes, reduced access to health facilities and interruptions in vaccination and other child health programs. Further challenges in LMICs include the inability to implement effective public health measures such as social distancing, hand hygiene, timely identification of infected people with self-isolation and universal use of masks. Lack of adequate personal protective equipment, especially N95 masks is a key concern for health care worker protection. While continued schooling is crucial for children in LMICs, provision of safe environments is especially challenging in overcrowded resource constrained schools. The current crisis is a harsh reminder of the global inequity in health in LMICs. The pandemic highlights key challenges to the provision of health in LMICs, but also provides opportunities to strengthen child health broadly in such settings.

Title: Daily emotional well-being during the COVID-19 pandemic Content: The COVID-19 outbreak has become one of the largest public health crises of our time. Governments have responded by implementing self-isolation and physical distancing measures that have profoundly impacted daily life throughout the world. In this study, we aimed to investigate how people experience the activities, interactions, and settings of their lives during the pandemic. The sample (N = 604) was assessed in Ireland on the 25 March 2020, following the closure of schools and non-essential businesses. We examined within-person variance in emotional well-being and how people spend their time. We found that while most time was spent in the home (74%), time spent outdoors (8%) was associated with markedly raised positive affect and reduced negative emotions. Exercising, going for walks, gardening, pursuing hobbies, and taking care of children were the activities associated with the greatest affective benefits. Home-schooling children and obtaining information about COVID-19 were ranked lowest of all activities in terms of emotional experience. These findings highlight activities that may play a protective role in relation to well-being during the pandemic, the importance of setting limits for exposure to COVID-19-related media coverage, and the need for greater educational supports to facilitate home-schooling during this challenging period.

Title: School Nurses on the Front Lines of Healthcare: The Approach to Maintaining Student Health and Wellness During COVID-19 School Closures Content: In response to the novel coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic, most states in the United States enacted statewide school closures, ranging in duration from 1 month to the remainder of the academic year. The extended durations of these closures present unique challenges, as many families rely on the school as a source of physical activity, mental health services, psychosocial support, child care, and food security. While the school doors may be closed, the school nurse can still play a vital role in emergency management. This article discusses challenges and proposes solutions to maintaining student health and wellness during extended school closures due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Furthermore, it is inevitable that until a vaccine for coronavirus is developed and readily available, many schools will continue to see future closures, though likely for shorter periods of time, as they respond to local outbreaks.

Title: Facing the University Environment with Covid-19 Pandemic: A Comparative Analysis between Romania and South Korea Content: The Covid-19 determined pandemic has affected all branches of socio-economic life, and the educational environment has not been bypassed The students' reaction to the measures of the total transfer of the teaching-learning process in the online environment, by universities closure, is proving to be one of the challenges determined by the current global pandemic manifestation The impact is highlighted by major changes with obvious patterns in the short time period The academic world is witnessing this changing from the position of forced adaptation, both teachers, administrative staff, and students being in the situation of reconsidering the entire system, in organization and functionality The on-line platforms have replaced the classrooms, the communication is made exclusively virtual, and the reactions caused by this form of reconfiguration are felt in multiple ways The present paper approaches the students' reaction to this necessity for adaptation, by comparison between the university environment from Romania and the one from South Korea The results indicate multiple similarities and minor differences between these two countries A main conclusion is that in technically, organizationally and emotionally-affective perspective, the situation is very similar, the differences being present only from a financial point of view and about the intention in student-teacher communication

Title: How risk communication could have reduced controversy about school closures in Australia during the COVID-19 pandemic Content: Although there has been consistent evidence indicating that school closures have only limited efficacy in reducing community transmission of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19), the question of whether children should be kept home from school has attracted extensive and often divisive public debate in Australia. In this article we analyse the factors that drove high levels of concern among parents, teachers and the public and led to both demands for school closures in late March 2020, and to many parents' reluctance to return their children to school in May 2020. We discuss how the use of well-established principles of risk communication might have reduced much of this community concern. Then we set out a range of practical suggestions for communication practices that build trust and hence diminish concerns in relation to managing schools over the long term of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Title: How risk communication could have reduced controversy about school closures in Australia during the COVID-19 pandemic. Content: Although there has been consistent evidence indicating that school closures have only limited efficacy in reducing community transmission of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19), the question of whether children should be kept home from school has attracted extensive and often divisive public debate in Australia. In this article we analyse the factors that drove high levels of concern among parents, teachers and the public and led to both demands for school closures in late March 2020, and to many parents' reluctance to return their children to school in May 2020. We discuss how the use of well-established principles of risk communication might have reduced much of this community concern. Then we set out a range of practical suggestions for communication practices that build trust and hence diminish concerns in relation to managing schools over the long term of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Title: Planning phase-2 for the endoscopic units in Northern Italy after COVID-19 lockdown: an exit strategy with a lot of critical issues and a few opportunities. Content: Background and aims: Restarting activity in Endoscopic Departments (ED) after COVID-19 lockdown raises critical issues. This survey investigates strategies and uncertainties on resumption of elective activity. Methods: Directors of 55 EDs in Northern Italy received a questionnaire focusing on the impact of pandemic on activity and organization and on the resources available at re-opening. A section was devoted to gather forecasts and proposals on the return path to normality. Results: All centres had reduced their activities of at least 50% of the pre-COVID-19 period. A rate of endoscopists (13.6%), nurses (25.2%), and health assistants (14%) were not available since infected, or relocated to other departments. One third of endoscopic rooms were converted to COVID-19 care. Two third had the waiting or the recovery areas too small for distancing. A dedicated pathway for infected patients could not be guaranteed in 20% of EDs. Only one third of EDs judged realistic to completely restore a pre-crisis workload by the next months. Optimizing appropriateness of procedures, closer interaction with GPs and triaging patients with telemedicine were the proposals to re-open EDs. Conclusions: The critical issues while re-opening EDs calls for reducing the workload in the endoscopy units through appropriate rescheduling of procedures.

Title: Collective impacts on a global education emergency: The power of network response Content: The COVID-19 pandemic is an emergency of an exceptional scale, with major impacts on education globally and with significant new challenges for education in existing humanitarian contexts. This Viewpoint reflects on the immediate challenges of continuing education in humanitarian contexts and on the experience of the Inter-agency Network for Education in Emergencies (INEE) as a network supporting collective action of Education in Emergencies (EiE) practitioners globally. It also looks forward at INEE’s plans to support quality distance education and issues to consider on the reopening of schools. It concludes with reflections on the needs and risks for EiE longer term.

Title: Training disrupted: Practical tips for supporting competency-based medical education during the COVID-19 pandemic Content: The COVID-19 pandemic has disrupted healthcare systems around the world, impacting how we deliver medical education. The normal day-to-day routines have been altered for a number of reasons, including changes to scheduled training rotations, physical distancing requirements, trainee redeployment, and heightened level of concern. Medical educators will likely need to adapt their programs to maximize learning, maintain effective care delivery, and ensure competent graduates. Along with a continued focus on learner/faculty wellness, medical educators will have to optimize existing training experiences, adapt those that are no longer viable, employ new technologies, and be flexible when assessing competencies. These practical tips offer guidance on how to adapt medical education programs within the constraints of the pandemic landscape, stressing the need for communication, innovation, collaboration, flexibility, and planning within the era of competency-based medical education.

Title: Training disrupted: Practical tips for supporting competency-based medical education during the COVID-19 pandemic. Content: The COVID-19 pandemic has disrupted healthcare systems around the world, impacting how we deliver medical education. The normal day-to-day routines have been altered for a number of reasons, including changes to scheduled training rotations, physical distancing requirements, trainee redeployment, and heightened level of concern. Medical educators will likely need to adapt their programs to maximize learning, maintain effective care delivery, and ensure competent graduates. Along with a continued focus on learner/faculty wellness, medical educators will have to optimize existing training experiences, adapt those that are no longer viable, employ new technologies, and be flexible when assessing competencies. These practical tips offer guidance on how to adapt medical education programs within the constraints of the pandemic landscape, stressing the need for communication, innovation, collaboration, flexibility, and planning within the era of competency-based medical education.

Title: Children are unlikely to be the main drivers of the COVID‐19 pandemic – a systematic review Content: AIM: Many countries have closed schools and kindergartens to minimise COVID‐19, but the role that children play in disease transmission is unclear. METHODS: A systematic literature review of the MEDLINE and EMBASE databases and medRxiv/bioRxiv preprint servers to 11 May 2020 identified published and unpublished papers on COVID‐19 transmission by children. RESULTS: We identified 700 scientific papers and letters and 47 full texts were studied in detail. Children accounted for a small fraction of COVID‐19 cases and mostly had social contacts with peers or parents, rather than older people at risk of severe disease. Data on viral loads were scarce, but indicated that children may have lower levels than adults, partly because they often have fewer symptoms, and this should decrease the transmission risk. Household transmission studies showed that children were rarely the index case and case studies suggested that children with COVID‐19 seldom caused outbreaks. However, it is highly likely that children can transmit the SARS‐COV‐2 virus, which causes COVID‐19, and even asymptomatic children can have viral loads. CONCLUSION: Children are unlikely to be the main drivers of the pandemic. Opening up schools and kindergartens is unlikely to impact COVID‐19 mortality rates in older people.

Title: Pandemics and the Environmental Rebound Effect: Reflections from COVID-19 Content: The irruption of the COVID-19 pandemic has raised concerns on sustainability issues. The pandemic has accelerated the implementation of technologies such as ICT and shifts in mobility behaviour. Such changes have the potential to reduce environmental burdens, but also to trigger large environmental rebound effects. This perspective article reflects on some emerging concerns on the socio-economic effects of a pandemic on the environment from a rebound effect perspective. Although the pandemic offers potential to improve the environmental conditions, it brings also a high risk to produce Jevons’ Paradox, i.e., increase environmental burdens rather than decrease them, as initially expected. Governments should be aware of these risks and assess the possibility to implement additional measures, like environmental taxation or limiting the use of resources, to help achieving sustainability targets.

Title: Impact of COVID-19 Second Wave on Healthcare Networks in the United States Content: The risk of overwhelming healthcare systems from a second wave of COVID-19 is yet to be quantified. Here, we investigate the impact of different reopening scenarios of states around the U.S. on COVID-19 hospitalized cases and the risk of overwhelming the healthcare system while considering resources at the county level. We show that the second wave might involve an unprecedented impact on the healthcare system if an increasing number of the population becomes susceptible and/or if the various protective measures are discontinued. Furthermore, we explore the ability of different mitigation strategies in providing considerable relief to the healthcare system. The results can aid healthcare planners, policymakers, and state officials in making decisions on additional resources required and on when to return to normalcy.

Title: Children are unlikely to be the main drivers of the COVID-19 pandemic - A systematic review Content: AIM: Many countries have closed schools and kindergartens to minimise COVID-19, but the role that children play in disease transmission is unclear. METHODS: A systematic literature review of the MEDLINE and EMBASE databases and medRxiv/bioRxiv preprint servers to 11 May 2020 identified published and unpublished papers on COVID-19 transmission by children. RESULTS: We identified 700 scientific papers and letters and 47 full texts were studied in detail. Children accounted for a small fraction of COVID-19 cases and mostly had social contacts with peers or parents, rather than older people at risk of severe disease. Data on viral loads were scarce, but indicated that children may have lower levels than adults, partly because they often have fewer symptoms, and this should decrease the transmission risk. Household transmission studies showed that children were rarely the index case and case studies suggested that children with COVID-19 seldom caused outbreaks. However, it is highly likely that children can transmit the SARS-COV-2 virus, which causes COVID-19, and even asymptomatic children can have viral loads. CONCLUSION: Children are unlikely to be the main drivers of the pandemic. Opening up schools and kindergartens is unlikely to impact COVID-19 mortality rates in older people.

Title: Digital transformation of everyday life – How COVID-19 pandemic transformed the basic education of the young generation and why information management research should care? Content: Children of today have been surrounded by digital technology since their birth. However, children of today are not equally equipped for their technology rich future: various kinds of digital divides still prevail in the society and affect the young generation and their digital futures. Schools and education of children should undergo an extensive digital transformation to be able to meet the needs of the young generation and their digitalized future. The COVID-19 pandemic has suddenly and abruptly forced schools and education indeed to engage in such a transformation. In this study we examine the digital transformation initiated by the COVID-19 pandemic in the basic education of the young generation, the variety of digital divides emerging and reinforced, and the possible barriers reported along the way. We argue that information management research should better acknowledge children, their digitalized everyday life and their basic education as significant areas of concern. We should understand them as well as allow them to shape the education we offer in the context of higher education, but we should also aim at influencing the basic education of the young generation – for the purpose of equipping them with important skills and competencies for their digital futures but also for the purpose of arousing their interest in this important field, maybe even as a career option.

Title: Production networks and epidemic spreading: How to restart the UK economy? Content: We analyse the economics and epidemiology of different scenarios for a phased restart of the UK economy. Our economic model is designed to address the unique features of the COVID-19 pandemic. Social distancing measures affect both supply and demand, and input-output constraints play a key role in restricting economic output. Standard models for production functions are not adequate to model the short-term effects of lockdown. A survey of industry analysts conducted by IHS Markit allows us to evaluate which inputs for each industry are absolutely necessary for production over a two month period. Our model also includes inventory dynamics and feedback between unemployment and consumption. We demonstrate that economic outcomes are very sensitive to the choice of production function, show how supply constraints cause strong network effects, and find some counter-intuitive effects, such as that reopening only a few industries can actually lower aggregate output. Occupation-specific data and contact surveys allow us to estimate how different industries affect the transmission rate of the disease. We investigate six different re-opening scenarios, presenting our best estimates for the increase in R0 and the increase in GDP. Our results suggest that there is a reasonable compromise that yields a relatively small increase in R0 and delivers a substantial boost in economic output. This corresponds to a situation in which all non-consumer facing industries reopen, schools are open only for workers who need childcare, and everyone who can work from home continues to work from home.

Title: Education, the science of learning, and the COVID-19 crisis Content: In the COVID-19 crisis, the science of learning has two different responsibilities: first, to offer guidance about how best to deal with the impact of the current situation, including lockdown and home-schooling; and second, to consider bigger questions about what this large-scale educational experiment might mean for the future. The first part of this Viewpoint summarises advice for parents on mental health, and on becoming stand-in-teachers. The second part, taking the longer view, considers the potential negative impact of the COVID-19 crisis in increasing inequality in education; but also the potential positive impact of driving innovations in technology use for educating children.

Title: Preparing Students for a More Public Health-Aware Market in Response to COVID-19 Content: The COVID-19 pandemic has made the public more aware of public health and the role its professionals play in addressing the pandemic. Schools and programs in public health have a new opportunity to recruit, train, and sustain the public health workforce. Academic public health can further educate the public and prepare students for meaningful careers through interprofessional education and practice-based learning.

Title: Preparing Students for a More Public Health-Aware Market in Response to COVID-19. Content: The COVID-19 pandemic has made the public more aware of public health and the role its professionals play in addressing the pandemic. Schools and programs in public health have a new opportunity to recruit, train, and sustain the public health workforce. Academic public health can further educate the public and prepare students for meaningful careers through interprofessional education and practice-based learning.

Title: How to Safely Reopen Colleges and Universities During COVID-19: Experiences From Taiwan Content: Reopening colleges and universities during the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic poses a special challenge worldwide. Taiwan is one of the few countries where schools are functioning normally. To secure the safety of students and staff, the Ministry of Education in Taiwan established general guidelines for college campuses. The guidelines delineated creation of a task force at each university; school-based risk screening based on travel history, occupation, contacts, and clusters; measures on self-management of health and quarantine; general hygiene measures (including wearing masks indoors); principles on ventilation and sanitization; regulations on school assemblies; a process for reporting suspected cases; and policies on school closing and make-up classes. It also announced that a class should be suspended if 1 student or staff member in it tested positive and that a school should be closed for 14 days if it had 2 or more confirmed cases. As of 18 June 2020, there have been 7 confirmed cases in 6 Taiwanese universities since the start of the pandemic. One university was temporarily closed, adopted virtual classes, and quickly reopened after 14 days of contact tracing and quarantine of possible contacts. Taiwan's experience suggests that, under certain circumstances, safely reopening colleges and universities this fall may be feasible with a combination of strategies that include containment (access control with contact tracing and quarantine) and mitigation (hygiene, sanitation, ventilation, and social distancing) practices.

Title: The role of the orthopaedic surgeon in the COVID-19 era: cautions and perspectives Content: The current coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic has revolutionized global healthcare in an unprecedented way and with unimaginable repercussions. Resource reallocation, socioeconomic confinement and reorganization of production activities are current challenges being faced both at the national and international levels, in a frame of uncertainty and fear. Hospitals have been restructured to provide the best care to COVID-19 patients while adopting preventive strategies not to spread the infection among healthcare providers and patients affected by other diseases. As a consequence, the concept of urgency and indications for elective treatments have been profoundly reshaped. In addition, several providers have been recruited in COVID-19 departments despite their original occupation, resulting in a profound rearrangement of both inpatient and outpatient care. Orthopaedic daily practice has been significantly affected by the pandemic. Surgical indications have been reformulated, with elective cases being promptly postponed and urgent interventions requiring exceptional attention, especially in suspected or COVID-19(+) patients. This has made a strong impact on inpatient management, with the need of a dedicated staff, patient isolation and restrictive visiting hour policies. On the other hand, outpatient visits have been limited to reduce contacts between patients and the hospital personnel, with considerable consequences on post-operative quality of care and the human side of medical practice. In this review, we aim to analyze the effect of the COVID-19 pandemic on the orthopaedic practice. Particular attention will be dedicated to opportune surgical indication, perioperative care and safe management of both inpatients and outpatients, also considering repercussions of the pandemic on resident education and ethical implications.

Title: A targeted e-learning approach to reduce student mixing during a pandemic Content: The COVID-19 pandemic has resulted in widespread closure of schools and universities. These institutions have turned to distance learning to provide educational continuity. Schools now face the challenge of how to reopen safely and resume in-class learning. However, there is little empirical evidence to guide decision-makers on how this can be achieved. Here, we show that selectively deploying e-learning for larger classes is highly effective at decreasing campus-wide opportunities for student-to-student contact, while allowing most in-class learning to continue uninterrupted. We conducted a natural experiment at a large university that implemented a series of e-learning interventions during the COVID-19 outbreak. Analyses of >24 million student connections to the university Wi-Fi network revealed that population size can be manipulated by e-learning in a targeted manner according to class size characteristics. Student mixing showed accelerated growth with population size according to a power law distribution. Therefore, a small e-learning dependent decrease in population size resulted in a large reduction in student clustering behaviour. Our results show that e-learning interventions can decrease potential for disease transmission while minimizing disruption to university operations. Universities should consider targeted e-learning a viable strategy for providing educational continuity during early or late stages of a disease outbreak.

Title: How to manage the post pandemic opening? A Pontryagin Maximum Principle approach Content: The COVID-19 pandemic has completely disrupted the operation of our societies. Its elusive transmission process, characterized by an unusually long incubation period, as well as a high contagion capacity, has forced many countries to take quarantine and social isolation measures that conspire against the performance of national economies. This situation confronts decision makers in different countries with the alternative of reopening the economies, thus facing the unpredictable cost of a rebound of the infection. This work tries to offer an initial theoretical framework to handle this alternative.

Title: Coronavirus Disease 2019, School Closures, and Children’s Mental Health Content: Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19), which was first identified in Wuhan, China, in late December of 2019 is rapidly spreading across the globe. The South Korean government has ordered the closure of all schools, as part of its attempts to use social distancing measures to prevent the spread of COVID-19. The effects of the school closures on reducing contagion are generally positive; however, the measure is controversial because of the socioeconomic ripple effect that accompanies it. The author briefly reviewed the existing literature on the mental health aspects of disasters and presents the issues related to school closures due to pandemics, from medical and socioeconomic perspectives and in terms of children’s mental health. The results of this review suggest that research on children’s mental health in relation to the adoption of school closures as a pandemic mitigation strategy is urgently needed.

Title: Consequences of physical distancing emanating from the COVID-19 pandemic: An australian perspective Content: The sobering reality of the COVID-19 pandemic is that it has brought people together at home at a time when we want them apart in the community. This will bring both benefits and challenges. It will affect people differently based upon their age, health status, resilience, family support structures, and socio-economic background. This article will assess the impact in high income countries like Australia, where the initial wave of infection placed the elderly at the greatest risk of death whilst the protective measures of physical distancing, self-isolation, increased awareness of hygiene practices, and school closures with distance learning has had considerable impact on children and families acutely and may have ramifications for years to come.

Title: School closures during the 2009 influenza pandemic: national and local experiences Content: BACKGROUND: School closure is a non-pharmaceutical intervention that was considered in many national pandemic plans developed prior to the start of the influenza A(H1N1)pdm09 pandemic, and received considerable attention during the event. Here, we retrospectively review and compare national and local experiences with school closures in several countries during the A(H1N1)pdm09 pandemic. Our intention is not to make a systematic review of country experiences; rather, it is to present the diversity of school closure experiences and provide examples from national and local perspectives. METHODS: Data were gathered during and following a meeting, organized by the European Centres for Disease Control, on school closures held in October 2010 in Stockholm, Sweden. A standard data collection form was developed and sent to all participants. The twelve participating countries and administrative regions (Bulgaria, China, France, Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (SAR), Italy, Japan, New Zealand, Serbia, South Africa, Thailand, United Kingdom, and United States) provided data. RESULTS: Our review highlights the very diverse national and local experiences on school closures during the A(H1N1)pdm09 pandemic. The processes including who was in charge of making recommendations and who was in charge of making the decision to close, the school-based control strategies, the extent of school closures, the public health tradition of responses and expectations on school closure varied greatly between countries. Our review also discusses the many challenges associated with the implementation of this intervention and makes recommendations for further practical work in this area. CONCLUSIONS: The single most important factor to explain differences observed between countries may have been the different public health practises and public expectations concerning school closures and influenza in the selected countries.

Title: Student engagement in a public health initiative in response to COVID‐19 Content: In face of the current pandemic, universities are closing worldwide. In Brazil, as elsewhere, academic activities have been suspended in response to the Ministry of Health's recommendations to socially distance. This created risk of suboptimally utilizing the great potential students have to contribute to the COVID-19 response.

Title: The global viralization of policies to contain the spreading of the COVID-19 pandemic: analyses of school closures and first reported cases. Content: Background With the exposure to the COVID-19 pandemic, countries swiftly implemented a variety of health policies. In this work we examine how rapid countries responded to this pandemic using two events: the day in which the first case of COVID-19 was reported, and first day in which countries used school closure as one of the measures to avoid outbreaks. Methods We compiled information from multiple sources, from December 31st 2019 to June 1st 2020, to trace when 172 countries reported their first COVID-19 case and implemented school closure to contain outbreaks. We applied cross-national Weibull survival analysis to evaluate the global speed of detection of first COVID-19 reported cases and school closure. We also assessed how health systems, globalization, economic development, political systems, and economic integration to China, Republic of Korea and Italy increased the speed of adoption. Results Ten days after the World Health Organization (WHO) declared COVID-19 to be an international emergency, countries were 28 (95% CI: 12,77) times more likely to report first COVID-19 cases and 42 (95% CI: 22,90) times more likely to close schools. One standard deviation increase in the epidemic security index rises the rate of report first cases by 37% (Hazard Ratio (HR) 1.37 (95% CI: 1.09,1.72) and delays the adoption for school closures by 36% (HR 0.64 (95% CI:0.50,0.82). One standard deviation increase in the globalization index augments the adoption for school closures by 74% (HR 1.74 (95% CI:1.34,2.24). Conclusion. After the WHO declared a global emergency, countries were unprecedently acting very rapidly. While countries more globally integrated were swifter in closing schools, countries with better designed health systems to tackle epidemics were slower in adopting it. More studies are needed to assess how the speed of school closures and other policies will affect the development of the pandemic.

Title: Hopelessness, helplessness and resilience: The importance of safeguarding our trainees' mental wellbeing during the COVID-19 pandemic Content: • The COVID-19 pandemic may put the mental wellbeing of trainees at risk. • Hopelessness, helplessness and burnout are important to be aware of. • We need to foster an open culture of trust and support. • We need to promote resilience in colleagues/trainees where possible.

Title: Clinical nursing and midwifery education in the pandemic age Content: The COVID-19 pandemic has disrupted clinical nursing and midwifery education. This disruption has long-term implications for the nursing and midwifery workforce and for future healthcare responses to pandemics. Solutions may include enhanced partnerships between schools of nursing and midwifery and health service providers and including schools of nursing and midwifery in preparedness planning. These suggestions notwithstanding, we call upon national and international nursing and midwifery bodies to study how to further the clinical education of nurses and midwives during pandemics and other times of crisis.

Title: Resuming elective surgical activity after the COVID-19 wave: what the patients need to know Content: As COVID-19 outbreak enters its second phase of lockdown ease, healthcare plans involve elective surgery re-establishment to provide essential life-saving care. Patients are increasingly requesting information about their facility's readiness for safely performing surgery. This information should be open and transparent including patient's education with objective data regarding the state of the pandemic in the country and the control measures undertaken by the facility.

Title: Resuming elective surgical activity after the COVID-19 wave: what the patients need to know. Content: As COVID-19 outbreak enters its second phase of lockdown ease, healthcare plans involve elective surgery re-establishment to provide essential life-saving care. Patients are increasingly requesting information about their facility's readiness for safely performing surgery. This information should be open and transparent including patient's education with objective data regarding the state of the pandemic in the country and the control measures undertaken by the facility.

Title: U.S. faculty and administrators’ experiences and approaches in the early weeks of the COVID-19 pandemic Content: The COVID-19 pandemic has had a profound and rapid impact on higher education institutions across the world. In this study, we report the findings of a survey investigating the rapid transition to emergency remote teaching in the early weeks of the pandemic at public and private post-secondary institutions in the United States. Participants consisted of 897 faculty and administrators at 672 U.S. institutions. Findings reveal that with few exceptions nearly all reporting institutions transitioned to emergency teaching and learning approaches. Administrators reported that faculty with and without online teaching experience pivoted to online teaching, and nearly all administrators indicated that those who did not have online teaching experience were in the process of learning how to teach online. Regardless of whether faculty had previous experience teaching online or not, many faculty reported that they were using new teaching methods. A majority of faculty reported making changes to their assignments or exams as a result of transitioning to a new mode of delivery. Nearly half reported lowering the expected volume of work for students (including dropping assignments or exams) and/or shifting to a pass/fail model for this semester. The primary areas where faculty and administrators identified a need for assistance related to student support, greater access to online digital materials, and guidance for working from home. This study provides an early snapshot of efforts towards teaching and learning continuity at a large scale and provides some insights for future research and practice.

Title: Artículo EspecialEl médico frente a la COVID-19: lecciones de una pandemia Content: Abstract Apart from its enormous health and economic impact, the COVID-19 pandemic has changed the way of practicing medicine and medical education. It is likely that this effect may accelerate the transformation that both activities are experiencing. The present article, written at the peak of the crisis, sets out some thoughts on four topics: 1) the publication of false and sensationalist news; 2) risks of taking medical decisions not based on the evidence; 3) the bioethical implications when there are sufficient resources available for everybody and; 4) the possible effects of the crisis on the teaching of medicine. This crisis should enable doctors, teachers and, students of medicine to draw conclusions and be better prepared for the future. Firstly, it is essential to maintain critical thinking that may protect against the “infodemic”. Furthermore, the scientific and ethical standards learned in the faculty, should not be lowered, but remain intact. Lastly, it should be remembered that, in a devastating pandemic like the current one, apart from scientific medicine, which is practised with the brain, that other medicine that is practiced with the heart must also be practised.

Title: Resumption of Respiratory Outpatient Services in the COVID-19 era: experience from Southern Italy Content: COVID-19 pandemic turned the entire health-care system organization upside-down, suspending elective activities and outpatient services. In Italy, we are entering a second phase of the pandemic and several strategies has been developed to "re-open" the country, some businesses, and also health-care outpatient activities. This manuscript describes the experience of a Southern Italy Respiratory Unit for safely resuming outpatient respiratory services and preventing COVID-19 transmission.

Title: Resumption of Respiratory Outpatient Services in the COVID-19 era: experience from Southern Italy Content: COVID-19 pandemic turned the entire health-care system organization upside-down, suspending elective activities and outpatient services. In Italy, we are entering a second phase of the pandemic and several strategies has been developed to “re-open” the country, some businesses, and also health-care outpatient activities. This manuscript describes the experience of a Southern Italy Respiratory Unit for safely resuming outpatient respiratory services and preventing COVID-19 transmission.

Title: Can indoor sports centers be allowed to re-open during the COVID-19 pandemic based on a certificate of equivalence? Content: Within a time span of only a few months, the SARS-CoV-2 virus has managed to spread across the world. This virus can spread by close contact, which includes large droplet spray and inhalation of microscopic droplets, and by indirect contact via contaminated objects. While in most countries, supermarkets have remained open, due to the COVID-19 pandemic, authorities have ordered many other shops, restaurants, bars, music theaters and indoor sports centers to be closed. As part of COVID-19 (semi)lock-down exit strategies, many government authorities are now (May 2020) allowing a gradual re-opening, where sometimes indoor sport centers are last in line to be permitted to re-open. This technical note discusses the challenges in re-opening these facilities and the measures already suggested by some to tackle these challenges. It also elaborates three potential additional measures and based on these additional measures, it suggests the concept of a certificate of equivalence that could allow indoor sports centers with such a certificate to re-open more rapidly. It also attempts to stimulate increased preparedness of indoor sports centers for potential next waves of SARS-CoV-2 as well as future pandemics. It is concluded that fighting situations such as the COVID-19 pandemic and limiting economic damage requires increased collaboration and research by virologists, epidemiologists, microbiologists, aerosol scientists, building physicists, building services engineers and sports scientists.

Title: Resuming elective surgical services in times of COVID-19 infection Content: The consequences of the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) virus have been devastating to the healthcare system. As the positive effects of social distancing, mandatory masking, and societal lockdown on the spread of the disease and its incidence in the community were documented, societal and financial pressures mounted worldwide, prompting efforts to “re-open” countries, states, communities, businesses, and schools. The same happened with hospital, which had to start developing strategies to resume elective surgery activities. This manuscript describes the pre-requisites as well as the strategies for resuming surgical activity, be it in the outpatient or inpatient setting.

Title: Predicting the second wave of COVID-19 in Washtenaw County, MI Content: Marissa Renardy and Denise Kirschner University of Michigan Medical School The COVID-19 pandemic has highlighted the patchwork nature of disease epidemics, with infection spread dynamics varying wildly across countries and across states within the US. These heteroge- neous patterns are also observed within individual states, with patches of concentrated outbreaks. Data is being generated daily at all of these spatial scales, and answers to questions regarded re- opening strategies are desperately needed. Mathematical modeling is useful in exactly these cases, and using modeling at a county scale may be valuable to further predict disease dynamics for the purposes of public health interventions. To explore this issue, we study and predict the spread of COVID-19 in Washtenaw County, MI, the home to University of Michigan, Eastern Michigan University, and Google, as well as serving as a sister city to Detroit, MI where there has been a serious outbreak. Here, we apply a discrete and stochastic network-based modeling framework allowing us to track every individual in the county. In this framework, we construct contact net- works based on synthetic population datasets specific for Washtenaw County that are derived from US Census datasets. We assign individuals to households, workplaces, schools, and group quarters (such as prisons). In addition, we assign casual contacts to each individual at random. Using this framework, we explicitly simulate Michigan-specific government-mandated workplace and school closures as well as social distancing measures. We also perform sensitivity analyses to identify key model parameters and mechanisms contributing to the observed disease burden in the three months following the first observed cases on COVID-19 in Michigan. We then consider several scenarios for relaxing restrictions and reopening workplaces to predict what actions would be most prudent. In particular, we consider the effects of 1) different timings for reopening, and 2) different levels of workplace vs. casual contact re-engagement. Through simulations and sensitivity analyses, we explore mechanisms driving magnitude and timing of a second wave of infections upon re-opening. This model can be adapted to other US counties using synthetic population databases and data specific to those regions.

Title: COVID-19 mathematical model reopening scenarios for Sao Paulo - Brazil Content: The objective of the current investigation was to produce a generalized computational model to predict consequences of various reopening scenarios on COVID-19 infections rates and available hospital resources in Sao Paulo - Brazil. We were able to use the Susceptible-Exposed-Infected-Recovered (SEIR) model to fit both accumulated death data and corrected accumulated cases data associated with COVID-19 for both Brazil and the state of Sao Paulo. In addition, we were able to simulate the consequences of reopening under different possible scenarios in Brazil, in special for the state of Sao Paulo. The model was able to provide a predicted scenario in which reopening could occur with minimal impact on human life considering people careful behavior in combination with continued social distancing measures.

Title: Be aware of how COVID‐19 could impact international students Content: The spread of COVID‐19 has impacted every aspect of college and university operations — and life in general. As you look ahead, consider ways the pandemic could impact your current and potential international students so you can implement plans to address the challenges.

Title: The Australian response to the COVID-19 pandemic and diabetes - Lessons learned Content: The COVID-19 pandemic has had a significant impact on the economy and health system of most countries in the world and this is also true of Australia. Australia has not seen the huge surge of COVID-19 positive cases and subsequent hospitalisations and deaths experienced in other parts of the world. However there have been important social and health strategies to "flatten" the curve, to reduce infections and to manage those infected. These have included closure of international and interstate borders, local lockdown measures, physical distancing, shift to work from home, closure of non-essential businesses and full or partial closure of all schools and tertiary education facilities. From the diabetes care perspective, there was a significant and concerted diversion of hospital resources and staff to COVID-19 specific activities. Reduced access to primary care, diagnostic and hospital services for diabetes, combined with fear of exposure to the virus in these settings, led to a significant drop in access to usual diabetes care. Provision of outpatient and private sector diabetes services via telehealth was encouraged and supported by expanded and new government subsidies. Importantly, for the first time, there was government funded subsidy for care delivered via the telephone and inclusion of credentialled diabetes educators in funded telephone/telehealth support. The Australian health professional and consumer organisations worked cooperatively producing guidelines, position statements and other educational resources specific for the COVID-19 setting. Once the COVID-19 pandemic is over, review of all the changes will be important, determining which should be permanently implemented. The learnings from COVID-19 should help prepare Australia for future pandemics or other major health crises.

Title: Health-education to prevent COVID-19 in schoolchildren: a call to action Content: BACKGROUND: There is currently considerable international debate around school closures/openings and the role of children in the transmission of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19). Whilst evidence suggests that children are not impacted by COVID-19 as severely as adults, little is still known about their transmission potential, and with a lot of asymptomatic cases they may be silent transmitters (i.e. infectious without showing clinical signs of disease), albeit at a lower level than adults. In relation to this, it is somewhat concerning that in many countries children are cared for, or are often in close contact with, older individuals such as grandparents â the age group most at risk of acquiring serious respiratory complications resulting in death. MAIN TEXT: We emphasise that in the absence of a vaccine or an effective therapeutic drug, preventive measures such as good hygiene practices â hand washing, cough etiquette, disinfection of surfaces and social distancing represent the major (in fact only) weapons that we have against COVID-19. Accordingly, we stress that there is a pressing need to develop specific COVID-19 prevention messages for schoolchildren. CONCLUSION: An entertainment education intervention for schoolchildren systematically implemented in schools would be highly effective and fill this need. With such measures in place there would be greater confidence around the opening of schools.

Title: Medical students' preference for returning to the clinical setting during the COVID-19 pandemic Content: OBJECTIVES: The Covid-19 pandemic has led to widespread disruptions in the clinical education of medical students. In managing students' return to the clinical setting, medical schools face the challenge of balancing education, service, and risk considerations. To compound this challenge, medical students may prefer not to re-enter during a period of great uncertainty, leading to substantive downstream sequelae on individual, institutional, and national levels. Understanding students' views on resuming clinical experiences, therefore, is an important consideration. The purpose of this study was to assess medical students' preference for re-entering the clinical setting during a pandemic, and to explore personal and environmental characteristics associated with that preference. METHODS: We conducted an electronic survey of currently enrolled medical students of Duke-NUS Medical School in Singapore, less than a month into the pandemic. Survey items were aligned with a conceptual framework related to medical students' preference for returning to the clinical setting. The framework consisted of three domains: 1) non-modifiable demographic information, 2) factors thought to be modifiable through the course of medical education, including burnout, tolerance for ambiguity, motivation, and professionalism, and 3) students' perception of Covid-19 infection risk to self. RESULTS: Approximately one third of 179 students preferred not to return to the clinical setting. Results of a multivariable analysis indicated that compared to this group, the two-thirds of students favouring return showed evidence of greater autonomous (or internal) motivation, a greater sense of professional responsibility, and a lower self-perception of harbouring risk to patients. CONCLUSIONS: Students' preference regarding return to the clinical environment stems from the interplay of several key factors, and is substantively associated with perceptions of professional responsibility and their own potential risk to the healthcare system. Mindfully considering and addressing these issues may help medical schools in their preparation for returning students to the clinical setting.

Title: Health-education to prevent COVID-19 in schoolchildren: a call to action Content: BACKGROUND: There is currently considerable international debate around school closures/openings and the role of children in the transmission of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19). Whilst evidence suggests that children are not impacted by COVID-19 as severely as adults, little is still known about their transmission potential, and with a lot of asymptomatic cases they may be silent transmitters (i.e. infectious without showing clinical signs of disease), albeit at a lower level than adults. In relation to this, it is somewhat concerning that in many countries children are cared for, or are often in close contact with, older individuals such as grandparents ─ the age group most at risk of acquiring serious respiratory complications resulting in death. MAIN TEXT: We emphasise that in the absence of a vaccine or an effective therapeutic drug, preventive measures such as good hygiene practices ─ hand washing, cough etiquette, disinfection of surfaces and social distancing represent the major (in fact only) weapons that we have against COVID-19. Accordingly, we stress that there is a pressing need to develop specific COVID-19 prevention messages for schoolchildren. CONCLUSION: An entertainment education intervention for schoolchildren systematically implemented in schools would be highly effective and fill this need. With such measures in place there would be greater confidence around the opening of schools.

Title: Flexible employment relationships and careers in times of the COVID-19 pandemic Content: The COVID-19 pandemic represents a crisis that affects several aspects of people's lives around the globe. Most of the affected countries took several measures, like lockdowns, business shutdowns, hygiene regulations, social distancing, school and university closings, or mobility tracking as a means of slowing down the distribution of COVID-19. These measures are expected to show short-term and long-term effects on people's working lives. However, most media reports focused on the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on changes in work arrangements (e.g., short-time work, flexible location and hours) for workers in a regular employment relationship. We here focus on workers in flexible employment relationships (e.g. temporary agency work and other forms of subcontracted labor, as well as new forms of working, such as in the gig economy). Specifically, we will discuss (a) how the work and careers of individuals in flexible employment relationships might get affected by the COVID-19 pandemic; (b) outline ideas how to examine period effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on the work and careers of those individuals, and (c) outline how the pandemic can contribute to the ramification of flexible employment relationships.

Title: Are we there yet? The transition from response to recovery for the COVID-19 pandemic Content: Abstract There is no corner of the planet that has not been impacted by the rapid spread of the novel coronavirus, COVID-19. While the COVID-19 pandemic has already had far-reaching socioeconomic consequences commonly associated with natural hazards (such as disruption to society, economic damage, and loss of lives), the response of governments around the world has been unparalleled and unlike anything seen before. Governments are faced with a myriad of multi-dimensional effects of the pandemic, including direct impacts on public health systems and population health and indirect socioeconomic effects including disruption to every single sector of the economy and mass unemployment. There is, additionally, the growing realisation that the timescale associated with this crisis may permanently change the very foundations of societies ‘normal’ day-to-day life. As the world transitions to recovering from COVID-19, those developing that recovery need support in adjusting and improving their policies and measures. The situation seems dire, the stakes are high. Literature about the transition between the response and recovery phase in relation to pandemics is scarce. Further complication is that the pandemic will not allow countries to simply transition to the full-scale recovery, instead, a rebound from recovery to response phase is expected for a certain period until the immunization is in place. Pandemics indeed force us to think beyond typical emergency management structures; the cycles of the disaster risk management in the case of biological and other natural hazards are not exactly the same and no one-size-fits-all approach may be used. Still, some parallels may be drawn with the efforts to combat natural hazards and some lessons may be used from previous and the current pandemic. Based on these experiences and reflections, this paper provides a set of policy directions to be considered during the transition towards, as well as throughout, this transition phase. It is suggested that meeting this global, multi-dimensional, and complex challenge will require considerable international collaboration (even convention) and macro-scale changes to global and national policies. The recovery issues are mainly going to be dominated by politics, economics and social science. Necessary for an effective recovery, the pandemic response needs to be a holistic response, combined with an improved data ecosystem between the public health system and the community. We should also view this outbreak and our response to it as an opportunity to learn lessons and reaffirm our universal commitment to sustainable development and enhancing wellbeing around the world.

Title: The Australian response to the COVID-19 pandemic and diabetes – lessons learned Content: The COVID-19 pandemic has had a significant impact on the economy and health system of most countries in the world and this is also true of Australia. Australia has not seen the huge surge of COVID-19 positive cases and subsequent hospitalisations and deaths experienced in other parts of the world. However there have been important social and health strategies to “flatten” the curve, to reduce infections and to manage those infected. These have included closure of international and interstate borders, local lockdown measures, physical distancing, shift to work from home, closure of non-essential businesses and full or partial closure of all schools and tertiary education facilities. From the diabetes care perspective, there was a significant and concerted diversion of hospital resources and staff to COVID-19 specific activities. Reduced access to primary care, diagnostic and hospital services for diabetes, combined with fear of exposure to the virus in these settings, led to a significant drop in access to usual diabetes care. Provision of outpatient and private sector diabetes services via telehealth was encouraged and supported by expanded and new government subsidies. Importantly, for the first time, there was government funded subsidy for care delivered via the telephone and inclusion of credentialled diabetes educators in funded telephone/telehealth support. The Australian health professional and consumer organisations worked cooperatively producing guidelines, position statements and other educational resources specific for the COVID-19 setting. Once the COVID-19 pandemic is over, review of all the changes will be important, determining which should be permanently implemented. The learnings from COVID-19 should help prepare Australia for future pandemics or other major health crises.

Title: Financial implications of the CoviD-19 epidemic for hospitals: A case study Content: A concern about the COVID-19 pandemic is that U S hospitals may not have the capacity to serve all the patients seeking care With all these new patients, could the pandemic be financially beneficial for hospitals? We suggest the answer is likely no for three reasons First, many hospitals have experienced reductions in both surgical and clinic volumes resulting in substantial revenue losses Second, there are reports of increases in the cost of supplies Finally, the increase in intensive care services required to respond to the surge of COVID-19 patients will result in a shift of patient volume from acute to intensive care, and this shift will not likely improve profitability To estimate the possible magnitude of each of these effects, we analyze 2019 financial data from a profitable, well-run hospital in Washington State Our estimates suggest that the COVID-19 epidemic will cause dramatic financial losses for hospitals and that the bulk of those losses will result from lost revenue We suggest that these losses will be sufficiently large to create major changes in the hospital industry including changes in ownership, changes in access to credit, changes in care delivery and changes in choices of community benefit provision

Title: Reopening Colleges and Universities During the COVID-19 Pandemic Content: In their article, Cheng and colleagues present the plan for reopening colleges and universities in Taiwan. There are important differences between Taiwan and other countries, but residential colleges and universities present similar challenges to pandemic control for all. Considering how well Taiwan has managed COVID-19 overall, the editorialists believe that the plan for safely reopening colleges and universities in Taiwan offers important principles.

Title: Clinical nursing and midwifery education in the pandemic age Content: The COVID‐19 pandemic has disrupted clinical nursing and midwifery education. This disruption has long‐term implications for the nursing and midwifery workforce and for future healthcare responses to pandemics. Solutions may include enhanced partnerships between schools of nursing and midwifery and health service providers and including schools of nursing and midwifery in preparedness planning. These suggestions notwithstanding, we call upon national and international nursing and midwifery bodies to study how to further the clinical education of nurses and midwives during pandemics and other times of crisis.

Title: Service-learning in response to the coronavirus disease 2019 pandemic: Emerging lessons from the Department of Family Medicine and Public Health at the University of Botswana Content: The novel coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic has disrupted many lives worldwide. Training programmes in academic institutions have also been affected by the pandemic. Teaching and learning family medicine and public health medicine in the COVID-19 era require adjustments to training activities. At the University of Botswana, the pandemic presented an opportunity to steer training programmes in the Department of Family Medicine and Public Health Medicine more towards service-learning. The department collaborated with the Ministry of Health and Wellness as well as the District Health Management teams in the national response to the pandemic as essential service providers. The increased demands for service provision were balanced with educational opportunities for trainees during the COVID-19 public health emergency. Including structured ongoing reflections for trainees involved in the COVID-19 response helps to connect service and the academic curriculum. KEYWORDS: COVID-19; coronavirus; service-learning; pandemic; Botswana.

Title: Economic interventions to ameliorate the impact of COVID-19 on the economy and health: an international comparison. Content: BACKGROUND The COVID-19 pandemic continues to challenge governments and policymakers worldwide. They have rightfully prioritised reducing the spread of the virus through social distancing interventions. However, shuttered business and widespread restrictions on travel and mobility have led to an economic collapse with increasing uncertainty of how quickly recovery will be achieved. METHODS The authors carried out a review of publicly available information on the economic intervention's countries have put in place to ameliorate the impact of COVID-19. RESULTS The strategies and scale of economic interventions have been broad, ranging from 2.5% to a reported 50% of Gross Domestic Product. CONCLUSIONS Numerous countries are beginning to ease lockdown restrictions and restart economies in different ways. There is therefore evolving, real-world data that should be used dynamically by governments and policymakers. The strategies on restarting the economy must be balanced against the uncertainty of a possible second wave of COVID-19. A nuanced approach to easing restrictions needs to take into account not only immediate risk to life but longer-term risks of widening inequalities and falling life expectancy.

Title: Flexible employment relationships and careers in times of the COVID-19 pandemic Content: Abstract The COVID-19 pandemic represents a crisis that affects several aspects of people's lives around the globe. Most of the affected countries took several measures, like lockdowns, business shutdowns, hygiene regulations, social distancing, school and university closings, or mobility tracking as a means of slowing down the distribution of COVID-19. These measures are expected to show short-term and long-term effects on people's working lives. However, most media reports focused on the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on changes in work arrangements (e.g., short-time work, flexible location and hours) for workers in a regular employment relationship. We here focus on workers in flexible employment relationships (e.g. temporary agency work and other forms of subcontracted labor, as well as new forms of working, such as in the gig economy). Specifically, we will discuss (a) how the work and careers of individuals in flexible employment relationships might get affected by the COVID-19 pandemic; (b) outline ideas how to examine period effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on the work and careers of those individuals, and (c) outline how the pandemic can contribute to the ramification of flexible employment relationships.

Title: Provide and Protect the Essential Components Content: This article takes a look at the current educational climate during the worldwide COVID-19 pandemic, specifically the place that physical education has during this time. It explores the importance of maintaining standards-based learning and the essential components of physical education.

Title: The Impact of the COVID-19 Pandemic on Fellowship Training: A National Survey of Pediatric Otolaryngology Fellowship Directors Content: OBJECTIVES: To gain a better understanding of the effects the COVID-19 pandemic has had on current and future pediatric otolaryngology fellowship training, as well as how the application process was impacted this past year. METHODS: An anonymous web-based survey consisting of 24 questions was sent to all fellowship directors. The survey questions were designed to gain a better understanding of the effects of the current COVID-19 pandemic on the surgical and clinical experience of current, to characterize the types of supplemental educational experiences that fellowship directors had incorporated into the curriculum to compensate for the decreased surgical and clinical workload, and highlight differences based on geographic location. RESULTS: Overall, 22 of 36 fellowship directors responded to our survey, for a total response rate of 61%. The Midwest had the highest response rate at 72.7%, followed by the Northeast (71.4%), the West (50%), and the South (50%). The vast majority of fellowship directors (77.2%) reported the COVID-19 pandemic had a “significant impact” on overall pediatric otolaryngology fellowship training. 86.3% of fellowship directors reported that their programs were still performing some surgical operations, but with decreased overall volume. Interestingly, 13.6% of fellowship directors reported that their fellows had been pulled to medicine or ICU services to assist with the COVID-19 pandemic. Of these programs that had a fellow pulled to the ICU or medicine service, 2 out of 3 were located in the Northeast, with the remaining fellow being from a program in the South. CONCLUSION: Overall, pediatric otolaryngology fellowship directors reported the COVID-19 pandemic has had a significant impact on the overall fellowship experience within the field of pediatric otolaryngology, with the majority feeling that both their fellows surgical and clinical experience have been significantly impacted.