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      Limiting spread of COVID-19 in Ghana: Compliance audit of selected transportation stations in the Greater Accra region of Ghana

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          Abstract

          Globally, little evidence exists on transmission patterns of COVID-19. Recommendations to prevent infection include appropriate and frequent handwashing plus physical and social distancing. We conducted an exploratory observational study to assess compliance with these recommendations in selected transportation stations in Ghana. A one-hour audit of 45 public transport stations in the Greater Accra region was carried out between 27 th and 29 th March 2020. Using an adapted World Health Organization (WHO) hand hygiene assessment scale, the availability and use of handwashing facilities, social distancing, and ongoing public education on COVID-19 prevention measures were assessed, weighted and scored to determine the level of compliance of stations. Compliance with recommendations was categorized as “inadequate” “basic”, “intermediate” and “advanced”, based on the overall score. Majority (80%) of stations in Accra have at least one Veronica Bucket with flowing water and soap, but the number of washing places at each station is not adequate. Only a small minority (18%) of stations were communicating the need to wash hands frequently and appropriately, and to practice social/physical distancing while at the station. In most stations (95%), hand washing practice was either not observed, or only infrequently. Almost all stations (93%) did not have alcohol-based hand sanitizers available for public use, while social distancing was rarely practiced (only 2%). In over 90% of the stations, face masks were either not worn or only worn by a few passengers. Compliance with COVID-19 prevention measures was inadequate in 13 stations, basic in 16 stations, intermediate in 7 stations, and advanced in 9 stations. Compliance with COVID-19 prevention measures in public transportation stations in the Greater Accra region remains a challenge. Awareness creation should aim to elevate COVID-19 risk perception of transportation operators and clients. Transport operators and stations need support and guidance to enforce hand washing and social distancing.

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          Characteristics of and Important Lessons From the Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) Outbreak in China: Summary of a Report of 72 314 Cases From the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention

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            Aerosol and Surface Stability of SARS-CoV-2 as Compared with SARS-CoV-1

            To the Editor: A novel human coronavirus that is now named severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) (formerly called HCoV-19) emerged in Wuhan, China, in late 2019 and is now causing a pandemic. 1 We analyzed the aerosol and surface stability of SARS-CoV-2 and compared it with SARS-CoV-1, the most closely related human coronavirus. 2 We evaluated the stability of SARS-CoV-2 and SARS-CoV-1 in aerosols and on various surfaces and estimated their decay rates using a Bayesian regression model (see the Methods section in the Supplementary Appendix, available with the full text of this letter at NEJM.org). SARS-CoV-2 nCoV-WA1-2020 (MN985325.1) and SARS-CoV-1 Tor2 (AY274119.3) were the strains used. Aerosols (<5 μm) containing SARS-CoV-2 (105.25 50% tissue-culture infectious dose [TCID50] per milliliter) or SARS-CoV-1 (106.75-7.00 TCID50 per milliliter) were generated with the use of a three-jet Collison nebulizer and fed into a Goldberg drum to create an aerosolized environment. The inoculum resulted in cycle-threshold values between 20 and 22, similar to those observed in samples obtained from the upper and lower respiratory tract in humans. Our data consisted of 10 experimental conditions involving two viruses (SARS-CoV-2 and SARS-CoV-1) in five environmental conditions (aerosols, plastic, stainless steel, copper, and cardboard). All experimental measurements are reported as means across three replicates. SARS-CoV-2 remained viable in aerosols throughout the duration of our experiment (3 hours), with a reduction in infectious titer from 103.5 to 102.7 TCID50 per liter of air. This reduction was similar to that observed with SARS-CoV-1, from 104.3 to 103.5 TCID50 per milliliter (Figure 1A). SARS-CoV-2 was more stable on plastic and stainless steel than on copper and cardboard, and viable virus was detected up to 72 hours after application to these surfaces (Figure 1A), although the virus titer was greatly reduced (from 103.7 to 100.6 TCID50 per milliliter of medium after 72 hours on plastic and from 103.7 to 100.6 TCID50 per milliliter after 48 hours on stainless steel). The stability kinetics of SARS-CoV-1 were similar (from 103.4 to 100.7 TCID50 per milliliter after 72 hours on plastic and from 103.6 to 100.6 TCID50 per milliliter after 48 hours on stainless steel). On copper, no viable SARS-CoV-2 was measured after 4 hours and no viable SARS-CoV-1 was measured after 8 hours. On cardboard, no viable SARS-CoV-2 was measured after 24 hours and no viable SARS-CoV-1 was measured after 8 hours (Figure 1A). Both viruses had an exponential decay in virus titer across all experimental conditions, as indicated by a linear decrease in the log10TCID50 per liter of air or milliliter of medium over time (Figure 1B). The half-lives of SARS-CoV-2 and SARS-CoV-1 were similar in aerosols, with median estimates of approximately 1.1 to 1.2 hours and 95% credible intervals of 0.64 to 2.64 for SARS-CoV-2 and 0.78 to 2.43 for SARS-CoV-1 (Figure 1C, and Table S1 in the Supplementary Appendix). The half-lives of the two viruses were also similar on copper. On cardboard, the half-life of SARS-CoV-2 was longer than that of SARS-CoV-1. The longest viability of both viruses was on stainless steel and plastic; the estimated median half-life of SARS-CoV-2 was approximately 5.6 hours on stainless steel and 6.8 hours on plastic (Figure 1C). Estimated differences in the half-lives of the two viruses were small except for those on cardboard (Figure 1C). Individual replicate data were noticeably “noisier” (i.e., there was more variation in the experiment, resulting in a larger standard error) for cardboard than for other surfaces (Fig. S1 through S5), so we advise caution in interpreting this result. We found that the stability of SARS-CoV-2 was similar to that of SARS-CoV-1 under the experimental circumstances tested. This indicates that differences in the epidemiologic characteristics of these viruses probably arise from other factors, including high viral loads in the upper respiratory tract and the potential for persons infected with SARS-CoV-2 to shed and transmit the virus while asymptomatic. 3,4 Our results indicate that aerosol and fomite transmission of SARS-CoV-2 is plausible, since the virus can remain viable and infectious in aerosols for hours and on surfaces up to days (depending on the inoculum shed). These findings echo those with SARS-CoV-1, in which these forms of transmission were associated with nosocomial spread and super-spreading events, 5 and they provide information for pandemic mitigation efforts.
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              Risk Factors Associated With Acute Respiratory Distress Syndrome and Death in Patients With Coronavirus Disease 2019 Pneumonia in Wuhan, China

              Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is an emerging infectious disease that was first reported in Wuhan, China, and has subsequently spread worldwide. Risk factors for the clinical outcomes of COVID-19 pneumonia have not yet been well delineated.
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                Author and article information

                Contributors
                Role: Formal analysisRole: InvestigationRole: MethodologyRole: Project administrationRole: SupervisionRole: ValidationRole: Writing – original draftRole: Writing – review & editing
                Role: MethodologyRole: Writing – original draftRole: Writing – review & editing
                Role: Data curationRole: Formal analysisRole: InvestigationRole: MethodologyRole: Writing – original draftRole: Writing – review & editing
                Role: InvestigationRole: MethodologyRole: Writing – original draftRole: Writing – review & editing
                Role: ConceptualizationRole: InvestigationRole: MethodologyRole: Writing – original draftRole: Writing – review & editing
                Role: ConceptualizationRole: Funding acquisitionRole: MethodologyRole: Project administrationRole: SupervisionRole: ValidationRole: Writing – original draftRole: Writing – review & editing
                Role: Editor
                Journal
                PLoS One
                PLoS ONE
                plos
                plosone
                PLoS ONE
                Public Library of Science (San Francisco, CA USA )
                1932-6203
                11 September 2020
                2020
                11 September 2020
                : 15
                : 9
                : e0238971
                Affiliations
                [1 ] Department of Epidemiology and Disease Control, University of Ghana School of Public Health, Accra, Ghana
                [2 ] Department of Biostatistics, University of Ghana School of Public Health, Accra, Ghana
                [3 ] Department of Population and Family Health, University of Ghana School of Public Health, Accra, Ghana
                National Institute for Infectious Diseases Lazzaro Spallanzani-IRCCS, ITALY
                Author notes

                Competing Interests: The authors have declared that no competing interests exist.

                Author information
                http://orcid.org/0000-0003-0069-3241
                http://orcid.org/0000-0003-1384-2461
                http://orcid.org/0000-0002-8382-3437
                Article
                PONE-D-20-13058
                10.1371/journal.pone.0238971
                7485755
                32915888
                a1c25572-8740-4631-b8fa-dd0558c7830e
                © 2020 Bonful et al

                This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.

                History
                : 6 May 2020
                : 27 August 2020
                Page count
                Figures: 1, Tables: 6, Pages: 13
                Funding
                Funded by: Office of Research, Innovation and Development, University of Ghana
                Award ID: URF/7/LMG-004/2013-2014
                Funding for the study was obtained from the University of Ghana Office of Research, Innovation, and Development. The Initial of recipient is RA. The URL of the funder site is http://orid.ug.edu.gh/. The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.
                Categories
                Research Article
                Medicine and Health Sciences
                Medical Conditions
                Infectious Diseases
                Viral Diseases
                Covid 19
                Engineering and Technology
                Transportation
                Medicine and Health Sciences
                Medical Conditions
                Infectious Diseases
                Infectious Disease Control
                Social Distancing
                Medicine and Health Sciences
                Public and Occupational Health
                Hygiene
                Medicine and Health Sciences
                Public and Occupational Health
                Hygiene
                Hand Washing
                People and Places
                Geographical Locations
                Africa
                Ghana
                Physical Sciences
                Chemistry
                Chemical Compounds
                Salts
                Soaps
                Social Sciences
                Sociology
                Communications
                Social Communication
                Custom metadata
                The dataset has been made publicly available at Figshare and the digital object identifier (DOI) is https://doi.org/10.6084/m9.figshare.12761984.
                COVID-19

                Uncategorized
                Uncategorized

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