Current contact-tracing statistics do not track coronavirus positive cases from receiving test results, nor factor in all close contacts for cases. Here’s how to make it better.
Cafe workers in Amsterdam watch a government press conference.
EPA/Remko De Waal
While it can be difficult to get young kids to follow instructions around social distancing, there are a few things parents can do to minimise the risk of any COVID-19 spread on the playground.
A re-imagined production of Thornton Wilder’s Our Town was cancelled five days before opening.
Anne-Louise Sarks
In a year of lockdowns, The Impossible Project gives life to shows that never reached the stage. More than 150 events are listed on this online archive, and sadly, more are likely to come.
We’ve learned much more about the novel coronavirus over the last few months, including that most spreading events occur inddoors.
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As the coronavirus pandemic continues, and the colder weather approaches, new mathematical models are needed to study changing social behaviours and indoor spaces.
People told us about leaking roofs and guttering, and about how water coming into their housing had caused internal damage, damp and mould.
Professor Christian Happi, director of the African Centre of Excellence for Genomics of Infectious Diseases, displays one of the most advanced automated acid extractors being used in the laboratory.
Pius Utomi Ekpei/AFP via Getty Images
A new test developed in Australia will reportedly be able to tell us whether someone has a high ‘viral load’. But that doesn’t automatically make them a ‘superspreader’.
Collective trauma research tells us if you haven’t been through the event, you’ll never quite understand. That doesn’t mean people outside Melbourne haven’t had their own experience, or can’t help.
Sewage testing can be used for early detection of disease.
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Identifying the emergence of a disease often relies on sick people seeking medical help. Wastewater monitoring can identify pathogens days or weeks earlier.
Spontaneous thought, or mind wandering, occupies up to 50% of our time awake. In a time of COVID, the unruliness and unboundedness of our minds might be a great escape.
With more health resources devoted to COVID-19, non-COVID patients may have unmet health-care needs, which predict poorer health in the future.
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With COVID-19 placing heavy demands on the health-care system, non-COVID patients may struggle to access care, putting women, people in poor health and those without a regular doctor at risk.
Kenyan flower exports to Europe fell 50%, affecting about 1 million people.
Getty Images
Restricting trade to control the pandemic damages livelihoods, especially those of the urban poor. The control of future pandemics must strike a balance between health and economic activity.
Business restrictions early in the pandemic, when rural towns had few cases, triggered a backlash that haunts them now.
Johannes Eisele/AFP/Getty Images
Lauren Hughes, University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus et Roberto Silva, University of Colorado Denver
Coronavirus cases have risen sharply across the Mountain West, Midwest and plains. Over 70% of nonmetropolitan counties are now “red zones,” suggesting viral spread is out of control.
The CDC has put out several conflicting messages of late, giving rise to concerns about trust.
Photo by MANDEL NGAN/AFP via Getty Images
The CDC has released conflicting messages on masks and transmission of the coronavirus. A scholar explains the nature of trust and why institutions need to be careful.
There is cause for optimism. But now the pendulum swings towards individuals taking responsibility for managing risks, rather than government telling you what you can and can’t do.
Honorary Enterprise Professor, School of Population and Global Health, and Department of General Practice and Primary Care, The University of Melbourne
Dean Faculty of Health Sciences and Professor of Vaccinology at University of the Witwatersrand; and Director of the SAMRC Vaccines and Infectious Diseases Analytics Research Unit, University of the Witwatersrand