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      Investigating the current environmental situation in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region during the third wave of COVID-19 pandemic: urban vs. rural context

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      1 , , 2 , , 3 , 4 , 5 , 6 , 7 , 8 , 9 , 10 , 11 , 12 , 13 , 14 , 15 , 16 , 17 , 18 , 19 , 20 , 13 , 18 , 21 , 22 , 23 , 24 , 25 , 26 , 27
      BMC Public Health
      BioMed Central
      COVID-19, Coronavirus, Environment, Pollution, Middle East, North Africa

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          Abstract

          Background

          Coronavirus 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic led to a massive global socio-economic tragedy that has impacted the ecosystem. This paper aims to contextualize urban and rural environmental situations during the COVID-19 pandemic in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) Region.

          Results

          An online survey was conducted, 6770 participants were included in the final analysis, and 64% were females. The majority of the participants were urban citizens (74%). Over 50% of the urban residents significantly ( p < 0.001) reported a reduction in noise, gathering in tourist areas, and gathering in malls and restaurants. Concerning the pollutants, most urban and rural areas have reported an increase in masks thrown in streets (69.49% vs. 73.22%, resp.; p = 0.003). Plastic bags and hospital waste also increased significantly with the same p-value of < 0.001 in urban areas compared with rural ones. The multifactorial logistic model for urban resident predictors achieved acceptable discrimination (AUROC = 0.633) according to age, crowdedness, noise and few pollutants.

          Conclusion

          The COVID-19 pandemic had a beneficial impact on the environment and at the same time, various challenges regarding plastic and medical wastes are rising which requires environmental interventions.

          Supplementary Information

          The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1186/s12889-021-12313-3.

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          Most cited references42

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          COVID-19 outbreak: Migration, effects on society, global environment and prevention

          The COVID-19 pandemic is considered as the most crucial global health calamity of the century and the greatest challenge that the humankind faced since the 2nd World War. In December 2019, a new infectious respiratory disease emerged in Wuhan, Hubei province, China and was named by the World Health Organization as COVID-19 (coronavirus disease 2019). A new class of corona virus, known as SARS-CoV-2 (severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2) has been found to be responsible for occurrence of this disease. As far as the history of human civilization is concerned there are instances of severe outbreaks of diseases caused by a number of viruses. According to the report of the World Health Organization (WHO as of April 18 2020), the current outbreak of COVID-19, has affected over 2164111 people and killed more than 146,198 people in more than 200 countries throughout the world. Till now there is no report of any clinically approved antiviral drugs or vaccines that are effective against COVID-19. It has rapidly spread around the world, posing enormous health, economic, environmental and social challenges to the entire human population. The coronavirus outbreak is severely disrupting the global economy. Almost all the nations are struggling to slow down the transmission of the disease by testing & treating patients, quarantining suspected persons through contact tracing, restricting large gatherings, maintaining complete or partial lock down etc. This paper describes the impact of COVID-19 on society and global environment, and the possible ways in which the disease can be controlled has also been discussed therein.
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            Indirect effects of COVID-19 on the environment

            This research aims to show the positive and negative indirect effects of COVID-19 on the environment, particularly in the most affected countries such as China, USA, Italy, and Spain. Our research shows that there is a significant association between contingency measures and improvement in air quality, clean beaches and environmental noise reduction. On the other hand, there are also negative secondary aspects such as the reduction in recycling and the increase in waste, further endangering the contamination of physical spaces (water and land), in addition to air. Global economic activity is expected to return in the coming months in most countries (even if slowly), so decreasing GHG concentrations during a short period is not a sustainable way to clean up our environment.
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              Minimising the present and future plastic waste, energy and environmental footprints related to COVID-19

              The COVID-19 pandemic has had growing environmental consequences related to plastic use and follow-up waste, but more urgent health issues have far overshadowed the potential impacts. This paper gives a prospective outlook on how the disruption caused by COVID-19 can act as a catalyst for short-term and long-term changes in plastic waste management practices throughout the world. The impact of the pandemic and epidemic following through the life cycles of various plastic products, particularly those needed for personal protection and healthcare, is assessed. The energy and environmental footprints of these product systems have increased rapidly in response to the surge in the number of COVID-19 cases worldwide, while critical hazardous waste management issues are emerging due to the need to ensure destruction of residual pathogens in household and medical waste. The concept of Plastic Waste Footprint (PWF) is proposed to capture the environmental footprint of a plastic product throughout its entire life cycle. Emerging challenges in waste management during and after the pandemic are discussed from the perspective of novel research and environmental policies. The sudden shift in waste composition and quantity highlights the need for a dynamically reponsive waste management system. Six future research directions are suggested to mitigate the potential impacts of the pandemic on waste management systems.
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                Author and article information

                Contributors
                mmahmoud@ump.edu.pl
                dina.moh55@yahoo.com
                yehia.elnagar@science.tanta.edu.eg
                phdalshehri@gmail.com
                Shaima.alothman.pt@gmail.com
                hesham.el-seedi@farmbio.uu.se
                trabelsirayhana@gmail.com
                oibrahim@sharjah.ac.ae
                esraatemraz98@gmail.com
                Pomsad1911@gmail.com
                barhom1029@gmail.com
                muhammadalwan535@gmail.com
                nuha.jasim@uobasrah.edu.iq
                hebanasser40@gmail.com
                drabdallahkoraiem03@gmail.com
                marebhamed@yahoo.com
                hebatmraz123@gmail.com
                alyaakhaled6299@gmail.com
                Abo.osama.2022@hotmail.com
                Fatma.mousa91@gmail.com
                aimad42030@gmail.com
                AsmaaEid45110@azhar.edu.eg
                almajdoubali1987@gmail.com
                kotni98.nour@gmail.com
                thuraya.amer@turath.edu.iq
                Journal
                BMC Public Health
                BMC Public Health
                BMC Public Health
                BioMed Central (London )
                1471-2458
                26 January 2022
                26 January 2022
                2022
                : 22
                : 177
                Affiliations
                [1 ]GRID grid.22254.33, ISNI 0000 0001 2205 0971, Department of Physical Pharmacy and Pharmacokinetics, , Poznan University of Medical Sciences, ; 6 Święcickiego Street, 60-781 Poznan, Poland
                [2 ]GRID grid.419615.e, ISNI 0000 0004 0404 7762, National Institute of Oceanography and Fisheries, NIOF, ; Cairo, Egypt
                [3 ]GRID grid.412258.8, ISNI 0000 0000 9477 7793, Zoology Department, , Faculty of Science, Tanta University, ; Tanta, 31527 Egypt
                [4 ]GRID grid.9018.0, ISNI 0000 0001 0679 2801, General Zoology, Institute for Biology, Martin Luther University Halle-Wittenberg, ; Hoher weg 8, 06120 Halle (Saale), Germany
                [5 ]GRID grid.411831.e, ISNI 0000 0004 0398 1027, Physical Therapy Department, , Jazan University, ; Jazan, Southern Region Saudi Arabia
                [6 ]GRID grid.449346.8, ISNI 0000 0004 0501 7602, Lifestyle and Health Research Center, Health Science Research Center, , Princess Nourah Bint Abdulrahman University, ; Riyadh, Saudi Arabia
                [7 ]GRID grid.440785.a, ISNI 0000 0001 0743 511X, International Research Center for Food Nutrition and Safety, , Jiangsu University, ; Zhenjiang, 212013 China
                [8 ]GRID grid.8993.b, ISNI 0000 0004 1936 9457, Pharmacognosy Group, Department of Pharmaceutical Biosciences, , BMC, Uppsala University, ; Box 591, 751 24 Uppsala, SE Sweden
                [9 ]GRID grid.440785.a, ISNI 0000 0001 0743 511X, International Joint Research Laboratory of Intelligent Agriculture and Agri-products Processing, Jiangsu Education Department, , Jiangsu University, ; Jiangsu, China
                [10 ]EHS Maternity and Pediatrics, Touggourt, Algeria
                [11 ]GRID grid.7776.1, ISNI 0000 0004 0639 9286, Faculty of Pharmacy, , Cairo University, ; Cairo, Egypt
                [12 ]GRID grid.412789.1, ISNI 0000 0004 4686 5317, College of Pharmacy, , University of Sharjah, ; Sharjah, UAE
                [13 ]GRID grid.411775.1, ISNI 0000 0004 0621 4712, Faculty of Medicine, , Menofia University, ; Menofia, Egypt
                [14 ]Aljala Hospital, Benghazi, Libya
                [15 ]Faculty of Medicine, Al Neelian University, Khartoum, Sudan
                [16 ]GRID grid.42269.3b, ISNI 0000 0001 1203 7853, Faculty of Medicine, , Aleppo University, ; Aleppo, Syria
                [17 ]GRID grid.411576.0, ISNI 0000 0001 0661 9929, Department of Engineering materials, College of Engineering, , University of Basrah, ; Basrah, Iraq
                [18 ]GRID grid.411170.2, ISNI 0000 0004 0412 4537, Faculty of Medicine, , Fayoum University, ; Fayoum, Egypt
                [19 ]GRID grid.411303.4, ISNI 0000 0001 2155 6022, Faculty of Pharmacy, , Al-Azhar University, ; Naser City, Cairo 11884 Egypt
                [20 ]GRID grid.411848.0, ISNI 0000 0000 8794 8152, Mosul Medical College, , University of Mosul, ; Mosul, Iraq
                [21 ]GRID grid.442890.3, ISNI 0000 0000 9417 110X, Faculty of Medicine, , Islamic University of Gaza, ; Gaza, Palestine
                [22 ]SHO General Surgery Department, Aljala Hospital, Benghazi, Libya
                [23 ]Tlemcen Faculty of Medicine, Tlemcen, Algeria
                [24 ]GRID grid.411303.4, ISNI 0000 0001 2155 6022, Faculty of Medicine for Girls, , Al-Azhar University, ; Cairo, Egypt
                [25 ]Brega General Hospital (BGH), Brega, Libya
                [26 ]GRID grid.440479.a, ISNI 0000 0001 2347 0804, School of Medicine and Health Care, Faculty of Medicine, , University of Oran, ; Oran City, Algeria
                [27 ]GRID grid.460855.a, Radiography Techniques Department, , Al-Turath University College, ; Baghdad, Iraq
                Article
                12313
                10.1186/s12889-021-12313-3
                8790551
                35081927
                c6b6183b-eb03-41f1-994f-af6da52074a8
                © The Author(s) 2022

                Open AccessThis article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons licence, and indicate if changes were made. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article's Creative Commons licence, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the article's Creative Commons licence and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder. To view a copy of this licence, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/. The Creative Commons Public Domain Dedication waiver ( http://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/) applies to the data made available in this article, unless otherwise stated in a credit line to the data.

                History
                : 18 June 2021
                : 24 November 2021
                Categories
                Research
                Custom metadata
                © The Author(s) 2022

                Public health
                covid-19,coronavirus,environment,pollution,middle east,north africa
                Public health
                covid-19, coronavirus, environment, pollution, middle east, north africa

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