Research on COVID-19
COVID-19 Omicron Variant Rapid Report
On 26 November 2021, the World Health Organisation designated SARS-CoV-2 B.1.1.529 a ‘variant of concern’ and named it Omicron.
The Saw Swee Hock School of Public Health summarises the emerging information, expert opinion and evidence around Omicron in a rapid review that will be updated at weekly intervals as the evidence gathers.
This report continues the series of COVID-19 Science Reports produced by the School in 2020 when Singapore saw its first cases.
Publications
Published: January 2022
doi:10.1016/j.scitotenv.2021.150060[/lvca_service_item][lvca_service_item icon_type=”icon_image” title=”Wastewater surveillance to infer COVID-19 transmission: A systematic review”]Science of the Total Environment
Published: September 2021
doi:10.1016/j.scitotenv.2021.150060[/lvca_service_item][lvca_service_item icon_type=”icon_image” title=”Impact of travel ban implementation on COVID-19 spread in Singapore, Taiwan, Hong Kong and South Korea during the early phase of the pandemic: a comparative study”]BMC Infectious Diseases
Published: August 2021
doi:10.1186/s12879-021-06449-1[/lvca_service_item][lvca_service_item icon_type=”icon_image” title=”Factors associated with high compliance behaviour against COVID-19 in the early phase of pandemic: a cross-sectional study in 12 Asian countries”]BMJ Open
Published: August 2021
doi:10.1136/bmjopen-2020-046310[/lvca_service_item][lvca_service_item icon_type=”icon_image” title=”Factors influencing SARS-CoV-2 transmission and outbreak control measures in densely populated settings”]Scientific Reports
Published: July 2021
doi:10.1038/s41598-021-94463-3[/lvca_service_item][lvca_service_item icon_type=”icon_image” title=”Epidemiological and clinical characteristics of non-severe and severe pediatric and adult COVID-19 patients across different geographical regions in the early phase of pandemic: a systematic review and meta-analysis of observational studies”]BMJ Journal of Investigative Medicine
Published: June 2021
doi:10.1136/jim-2021-001858[/lvca_service_item][lvca_service_item icon_type=”icon_image” title=”Association between well-being and compliance with COVID-19 preventive measures by healthcare professionals: A cross-sectional study”]PLOS One
Published: June 2021
doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0252835[/lvca_service_item][lvca_service_item icon_type=”icon_image” title=”Estimating direct and spill-over impacts of political elections on COVID-19 transmission using synthetic control methods”]PLOS Computational Biology
Published: May 2021
doi:10.1371/journal.pcbi.1008959[/lvca_service_item][lvca_service_item icon_type=”icon_image” title=”Micronutrients Deficiency, Supplementation and Novel Coronavirus Infections—A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis”]Nutrients
Published: May 2021
doi:10.3390/nu13051589[/lvca_service_item][lvca_service_item icon_type=”icon_image” title=”How the lessons of previous epidemics helped successful countries fight covid-19″]BMJ
Published: March 2021
doi:10.1136/bmj.n486[/lvca_service_item][lvca_service_item icon_type=”icon_image” title=”Highly functional virus-specific cellular immune response in asymptomatic SARS-CoV-2 infection”]Journal of Experimental Medicine
Published: March 2021
doi:10.1084/jem.20202617[/lvca_service_item][lvca_service_item icon_type=”icon_image” title=”The Impact of the Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID‐19) pandemic on Irritable Bowel Syndrome”]Journal of Gastroenterology and Hepatology
Published: February 2021
doi:10.1111/jgh.15466[/lvca_service_item][lvca_service_item icon_fontawesome=”” title=”Infectivity of asymptomatic versus symptomatic COVID-19″]The Lancet
Published: December 2020
doi:10.1016/S0140-6736(20)32651-9[/lvca_service_item][lvca_service_item icon_type=”icon_image” title=”SARS-CoV-2 seroprevalence and transmission risk factors among high-risk close contacts: a retrospective cohort study”]The Lancet Infectious Diseases
Published: November 2020
doi:10.1016/S1473-3099(20)30833-1[/lvca_service_item][lvca_service_item icon_type=”icon_image” title=”Lessons learnt from easing COVID-19 restrictions: an analysis of countries and regions in Asia Pacific and Europe”]The Lancet
Published: September 2020
doi:10.1016/S0140-6736(20)32007-9[/lvca_service_item][lvca_service_item icon_type=”icon_image” title=”Revealing regional disparities in the transmission potential of SARS-CoV-2 from interventions in Southeast Asia”]Proceedings of the Royal Society B
Published: August 2020
doi:10.1098/rspb.2020.1173[/lvca_service_item][lvca_service_item icon_type=”icon_image” title=”Strategies at points of entry to reduce importation risk of COVID-19 cases and reopen travel”]Journal of Travel Medicine
Published: August 2020
doi:10.1093/jtm/taaa141[/lvca_service_item][lvca_service_item icon_type=”icon_image” title=”Importations of COVID-19 into African countries and risk of onward spread”]BMC Infectious Diseases
Published: August 2020
doi:10.1186/s12879-020-05323-w[/lvca_service_item][lvca_service_item icon_type=”icon_image” title=”The Costs of an Expanded Screening Criteria for COVID-19: A Modelling Study”]International Journal of Infectious Diseases
Published: August 2020
doi:10.1016/j.ijid.2020.08.025[/lvca_service_item][lvca_service_item icon_type=”icon_image” title=”Modelling lockdown and exit strategies for COVID-19 in Singapore”]ScienceDirect
Published: August 2020
doi:10.1016/j.lanwpc.2020.100004[/lvca_service_item][lvca_service_item icon_type=”icon_image” title=”The Practice of Gastrointestinal Motility Laboratory During COVID-19 Pandemic: Position Statements of the Asian Neurogastroenterology and Motility Association (ANMA-GML-COVID-19 Position Statements)”]Journal of Neurogastroenterology and Motility
Published: July 2020
doi:10.5056/jnm20107[/lvca_service_item][lvca_service_item icon_type=”icon_image” title=”Use of Health Belief Model–Based Deep Learning Classifiers for COVID-19 Social Media Content to Examine Public Perceptions of Physical Distancing: Model Development and Case Study”]JMIR Public Health and Surveillance
Published: July 2020
doi:10.2196/20493[/lvca_service_item][lvca_service_item icon_type=”icon_image” title=”Estimating the Size of a COVID-19 Epidemic from Surveillance Systems”]Epidemiology
Published: July 2020
doi:10.1097/EDE.0000000000001202[/lvca_service_item][lvca_service_item icon_type=”icon_image” title=”Ethical Implementation of Immunity Passports During the COVID-19 Pandemic”]The Journal of Infectious Diseases
Published: June 2020
doi:10.1093/infdis/jiaa352[/lvca_service_item][lvca_service_item icon_type=”icon_image” title=”Epidemiological and Clinical Characteristics of Cases During the Early Phase of COVID-19 Pandemic: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis”]Frontiers in Medicine
Published: June 2020
doi:10.3389/fmed.2020.00295[/lvca_service_item][lvca_service_item icon_type=”icon_image” title=”Assessment of Proficiency of N95 Mask Donning Among the General Public in Singapore”]JAMA Network Open
Published: May 2020
doi:10.1001/jamanetworkopen.2020.9670[/lvca_service_item][lvca_service_item icon_type=”icon_image” title=”Measuring the Outreach Efforts of Public Health Authorities and the Public Response on Facebook During the COVID-19 Pandemic in Early 2020: Cross-Country Comparison”]Journal of Medical Internet Research
Published: May 2020
doi:10.2196/19334[/lvca_service_item][lvca_service_item icon_type=”icon_image” title=”Connecting clusters of COVID-19: an epidemiological and serological investigation”]The Lancet Infectious Diseases
Published: April 2020
doi:10.1016/S1473-3099(20)30273-5[/lvca_service_item][lvca_service_item icon_type=”icon_image” title=”Institutional, not home-based, isolation could contain the COVID-19 outbreak”]The Lancet
Published: April 2020
doi:10.1016/S0140-6736(20)31016-3[/lvca_service_item][lvca_service_item icon_type=”icon_image” title=”A Systematic Review of COVID-19 Epidemiology Based on Current Evidence”]Journal of Clinical Medicine
Published: March 2020
doi:10.3390/jcm9040967[/lvca_service_item][lvca_service_item icon_type=”icon_image” title=”Covid-19: a remote assessment in primary care”]BMJ
Published: March 2020
doi:10.1136/bmj.m1182[/lvca_service_item][lvca_service_item icon_type=”icon_image” title=”Epidemiological and Clinical Predictors of COVID-19″]Clinical Infectious Diseases
Published: March 2020
doi:10.1093/cid/ciaa322[/lvca_service_item][lvca_service_item icon_type=”icon_image” title=”Interventions to mitigate early spread of SARS-CoV-2 in Singapore: a modelling study”]The Lancet Infectious Diseases
Published: March 2020
doi:10.1016/S1473-3099(20)30162-6[/lvca_service_item][lvca_service_item icon_type=”icon_image” title=”How Should the Rehabilitation Community Prepare for 2019-nCoV?”]Archives of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation
Published: March 2020
doi:10.1016/j.apmr.2020.03.003[/lvca_service_item][lvca_service_item icon_type=”icon_image” title=”Investigation of three clusters of COVID-19 in Singapore: implications for surveillance and response measures”]The Lancet
Published: March 2020
doi:10.1016/S0140-6736(20)30528-6[/lvca_service_item][lvca_service_item icon_type=”icon_image” title=”Potential Rapid Diagnostics, Vaccine and Therapeutics for 2019 Novel Coronavirus (2019-nCoV): A Systematic Review”]Journal of Clinical Medicine
Published: February 2020
doi:10.3390/jcm9030623[/lvca_service_item][/lvca_services]
SSHSPH COVID-19 Science Reports
When Singapore saw its first case of COVID-19 on 24 January 2020, the Saw Swee Hock School of Public Health started to collate emerging evidence to produce COVID-19 Science Reports for researchers, policymakers and regional colleagues. The reports were based on searches of research databases, relevant journals, science reports and expert comment, and were updated at weekly intervals until July 2020. The last versions are shared below.
Introduction
Clinical Characteristics
Fever, tiredness, cough and sore throat are the most common presenting symptoms and many cases are mild. Older people and those with underlying medical conditions like high blood pressure, heart problems or diabetes, are more likely to develop serious illness. Early identification through analysis of detailed clinical presentations supports understanding and care of these high-risk groups. This section reviews the latest evidence.
Diagnostics
As COVID-19 has similar clinical characteristics to many other respiratory illnesses, accurate and timely diagnosis contributes to prompt public health surveillance, prevention and control measures. Latest developments in diagnostic testing for COVID-19 are outlined in this section.
Therapeutics
There is currently no specific drug treatment for COVID-19. Existing drugs used to treat other conditions may be candidates and repurposed for COVID-19, and are undergoing clinical trials. This section summarises the research in relation to potential drug treatments.
Vaccines
There are currently no vaccines effective against COVID-19. There has been no significant change in the RNA of the virus since its emergence and potential vaccines are in development. This section provides an overview of vaccines in research and development.
Containment Measures
Non-pharmaceutical interventions (NPIs) are often the only options available to governments to contain an evolving outbreak until the arrival of medical solutions. This section surveys the current literature on NPIs used in outbreaks of respiratory diseases and summarises the key measures taken, evidence on their effectiveness and efficiency, and considerations and impact from their deployment.
Lockdowns
This report explores the learning around lockdown measures from the 1918 pandemic and current COVID-19 case study examples. This report should be read alongside the COVID-19 Science Report: Containment Measures (above).
Exit Strategies
Exit Strategies Appendix - Safe Reopening of Schools
Countries around the world have implemented various combinations of safe measures in the reopening of schools. This appendix reviews these measures and discusses the rationale and considerations behind them.