COVID-19 and Cities: from Urban Health strategies to the pandemic challenge. A Decalogue of Public Health opportunities

There is no author summary for this article yet. Authors can add summaries to their articles on ScienceOpen to make them more accessible to a non-specialist audience.

Abstract

Background and aim of the work.

The ongoing pandemic of COVID-19, which nowadays has exceeded 2.5 million notified infections in the world and about 200,000 deaths, is a strong reminder that urbanization has changed the way that people and communities live, work, and interact, and it’s necessary to make the systems and local capacities resilient to prevent the spread of infectious diseases. How we can re-design the concept of Public Health in relation to the built environment and the contemporary cities?

Methods.

According to the previous statements and scenario, aim of this paper is to integrate the Urban Health strategic objectives, focusing the possible responses, both immediate and medium-long term, to the current environmental, social, and economic aspects of the “period” of physical distancing.

Results.

Immediate Actions are 01. program the flexibility of city schedules; 02. plan a smart and sustainable mobility network; 03. define a neighborhood services’ plan; 04. develop a digitization of the urban context, promoting the smart communities; 05. re-think the accessibility to the places of culture and tourism. Medium-long term Actions are 06. design the indoor flexibility of domestic living spaces; 07. re-think building typologies, fostering the presence of semi-private or collective spaces; 08. renovate the basic care services’ network; 09. integrate the existing environmental emergency plans, with those related to the health emergencies; 10. improve stakeholders’ awareness of the factors affecting Public Health in the cities.

Conclusions.

The Decalogue of Public Health opportunities may provide a useful basis for Designers (Architects and Urban Planners), Policy Makers, Public Health experts and Local Health Agencies, in promoting actions and policies aimed to transform our cities in healthier and Salutogenic living environments. (www.actabiomedica.it)

Related collections

Most cited references 38

Record: found
Abstract: found
Article: not found

Persistence of coronaviruses on inanimate surfaces and their inactivation with biocidal agents

G Kampf, D Todt, S. Pfaender … (2020)

Summary Currently, the emergence of a novel human coronavirus, SARS-CoV-2, has become a global health concern causing severe respiratory tract infections in humans. Human-to-human transmissions have been described with incubation times between 2-10 days, facilitating its spread via droplets, contaminated hands or surfaces. We therefore reviewed the literature on all available information about the persistence of human and veterinary coronaviruses on inanimate surfaces as well as inactivation strategies with biocidal agents used for chemical disinfection, e.g. in healthcare facilities. The analysis of 22 studies reveals that human coronaviruses such as Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) coronavirus, Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (MERS) coronavirus or endemic human coronaviruses (HCoV) can persist on inanimate surfaces like metal, glass or plastic for up to 9 days, but can be efficiently inactivated by surface disinfection procedures with 62–71% ethanol, 0.5% hydrogen peroxide or 0.1% sodium hypochlorite within 1 minute. Other biocidal agents such as 0.05–0.2% benzalkonium chloride or 0.02% chlorhexidine digluconate are less effective. As no specific therapies are available for SARS-CoV-2, early containment and prevention of further spread will be crucial to stop the ongoing outbreak and to control this novel infectious thread.

0 comments Cited 1488 times – based on 0 reviews      Review now

Bookmark

Record: found
Abstract: found
Article: not found

Impact of meteorological factors on the COVID-19 transmission: A multi-city study in China

Jiangtao Liu, Ji Zhou, Jinxi Yao … (2020)

The purpose of the present study is to explore the associations between novel coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) case counts and meteorological factors in 30 provincial capital cities of China. We compiled a daily dataset including confirmed case counts, ambient temperature (AT), diurnal temperature range (DTR), absolute humidity (AH) and migration scale index (MSI) for each city during the period of January 20th to March 2nd, 2020. First, we explored the associations between COVID-19 confirmed case counts, meteorological factors, and MSI using non-linear regression. Then, we conducted a two-stage analysis for 17 cities with more than 50 confirmed cases. In the first stage, generalized linear models with negative binomial distribution were fitted to estimate city-specific effects of meteorological factors on confirmed case counts. In the second stage, the meta-analysis was conducted to estimate the pooled effects. Our results showed that among 13 cities that have less than 50 confirmed cases, 9 cities locate in the Northern China with average AT below 0 °C, 12 cities had average AH below 4 g/m3, and one city (Haikou) had the highest AH (14.05 g/m3). Those 17 cities with 50 and more cases accounted for 90.6% of all cases in our study. Each 1 °C increase in AT and DTR was related to the decline of daily confirmed case counts, and the corresponding pooled RRs were 0.80 (95% CI: 0.75, 0.85) and 0.90 (95% CI: 0.86, 0.95), respectively. For AH, the association with COVID-19 case counts were statistically significant in lag 07 and lag 014. In addition, we found the all these associations increased with accumulated time duration up to 14 days. In conclusions, meteorological factors play an independent role in the COVID-19 transmission after controlling population migration. Local weather condition with low temperature, mild diurnal temperature range and low humidity likely favor the transmission.

0 comments Cited 263 times – based on 0 reviews      Review now

Bookmark

Record: found
Abstract: found
Article: found

Is Open Access

A description of a knowledge broker role implemented as part of a randomized controlled trial evaluating three knowledge translation strategies

Maureen Dobbins, Paula Robeson, Donna Ciliska … (2009)

Background A knowledge broker (KB) is a popular knowledge translation and exchange (KTE) strategy emerging in Canada to promote interaction between researchers and end users, as well as to develop capacity for evidence-informed decision making. A KB provides a link between research producers and end users by developing a mutual understanding of goals and cultures, collaborates with end users to identify issues and problems for which solutions are required, and facilitates the identification, access, assessment, interpretation, and translation of research evidence into local policy and practice. Knowledge-brokering can be carried out by individuals, groups and/or organizations, as well as entire countries. In each case, the KB is linked with a group of end users and focuses on promoting the integration of the best available evidence into policy and practice-related decisions. Methods A KB intervention comprised one of three KTE interventions evaluated in a randomized controlled trial. Results KB activities were classified into the following categories: initial and ongoing needs assessments; scanning the horizon; knowledge management; KTE; network development, maintenance, and facilitation; facilitation of individual capacity development in evidence informed decision making; and g) facilitation of and support for organizational change. Conclusion As the KB role developed during this study, central themes that emerged as particularly important included relationship development, ongoing support, customized approaches, and opportunities for individual and organizational capacity development. The novelty of the KB role in public health provides a unique opportunity to assess the need for and reaction to the role and its associated activities. Future research should include studies to evaluate the effectiveness of KBs in different settings and among different health care professionals, and to explore the optimal preparation and training of KBs, as well as the identification of the personality characteristics most closely associated with KB effectiveness. Studies should also seek to better understand which combination of KB activities are associated with optimal evidence-informed decision making outcomes, and whether the combination changes in different settings and among different health care decision makers.

0 comments Cited 95 times – based on 0 reviews      Review now

Bookmark

All references

Author and article information

Journal

Journal ID (nlm-ta): Acta Biomed

Journal ID (iso-abbrev): Acta Biomed

Title: Acta Bio Medica : Atenei Parmensis

Publisher: Mattioli 1885 (Italy )

ISSN (Print): 0392-4203

ISSN (Electronic): 2531-6745

Publication date (Print): 2020

Publication date (Electronic): 11 May 2020

Volume: 91

Issue: 2

Pages: 13-22

Affiliations

[1 ]Politecnico di Milano, Department of Architecture, Built environment and Construction engineering (DABC)

[2 ] Sapienza University of Rome, Department of Civil Building Environmental Engineering (DICEA)

[3 ] University Vita-Salute San Raffaele, Milan (UniSR)

[4 ] Sapienza University of Rome, Department of Public Health and Infectious diseases (DSPMI)

Author notes

Correspondence: Andrea Rebecchi DABC Department, Politecnico di Milano Via Ponzio, 31 - 20133 Milan (Italy) Tel.: +39 0223995140 E-mail: andrea.rebecchi@ 123456polimi.it

Article

Publisher ID: ACTA-91-13

DOI: 10.23750/abm.v91i2.9515

PMC ID: 7569650

PubMed ID: 32420919

SO-VID: 74ae41c5-3d5d-454a-81e9-cdb131eda58c

License:

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License

COVID-19 and Cities: from Urban Health strategies to the pandemic challenge. A Decalogue of Public Health opportunities

Read this article at

Abstract

Background and aim of the work.

Methods.

Results.

Conclusions.

Related collections

Novel Coronavirus Disease COVID-19

Most cited references 38

Persistence of coronaviruses on inanimate surfaces and their inactivation with biocidal agents

Impact of meteorological factors on the COVID-19 transmission: A multi-city study in China

A description of a knowledge broker role implemented as part of a randomized controlled trial evaluating three knowledge translation strategies

Author and article information

Journal

Affiliations

Author notes

Article

History

Categories

Comments

Comment on this article

Similar content 63

Cited by 29

Most referenced authors 291