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We estimate the effects of shelter-in-place (SIP) orders during the first wave of the COVID-19 pandemic. We do not find detectable effects of these policies on disease spread or deaths. We find small but measurable effects on mobility that dissipate over time. And we find small, delayed effects on unemployment. We conduct additional analyses that separately assess the effects of expanding versus withdrawing SIP orders and test whether there are spillover effects in other states. Our results are consistent with prior studies showing that SIP orders have accounted for a relatively small share of the mobility trends and economic disruptions associated with the pandemic. We reanalyze two prior studies purporting to show that SIP orders caused large reductions in disease prevalence, and show that those results are not reliable. Our results do not imply that social distancing behavior by individuals, as distinct from SIP policy, is ineffective.

The COVID-19 pandemic has dramatically altered life globally during the first 4 months of 2020. Many countries, including the United States, responded to the pandemic by issuing stay-at-home orders/shelter-in-place orders (SaHOs/SiPOs) to their citizens. By April 2020, more than 90% of the U.S. population was subject to an order. SaHOs/SiPOs raise a number of complex issues for the police, ranging from concerns about infringement of constitutional rights to potential sanctions for violations of an order. This article delves into the issues surrounding SaHOs/SiPOs and highlights their complexity for the police. First, we examine the “why the police?” question, and point to key features of their role which make enforcement of SaHOs/SiPOs the proper business of the police. Second, we examine the relevant legal doctrines that can serve as the basis for police actions against violators of orders, most notably the special needs doctrine. Last, we offer police legitimacy as a lens for viewing the appropriateness of police responses to violators of SaHOs/SiPOs.

This study aimed to better understand the factors driving reported trends in domestic violence during the COVID-19 pandemic, particularly the effect of the pandemic on survivors’ experiences of violence and ability to seek support. We conducted semi-structured qualitative interviews with 32 DV service providers operating in organizations across 24 U.S. cities. The majority of providers described a decrease in contact volume when shelter-in-place orders were first established, which they attributed to safety concerns, competing survival priorities, and miscommunication about what resources were available. For most organizations, this decrease was followed by an increase in contacts after the lifting of shelter-in-place orders, often surpassing typical contact counts from the pre-pandemic period. Providers identified survivors’ ability to return to some aspects of their pre-pandemic lives, increased stress levels, and increased lethality of cases as key factors driving this increase. In addition, providers described several unique challenges faced by DV survivors during the pandemic, such as the use of the virus as an additional tool for control by abusers and an exacerbated lack of social support. These findings provide insight into the lived experiences driving observed trends in DV rates during COVID-19. Understanding the impact of the pandemic on survivors can help to shape public health and policy interventions to better support this vulnerable population during future crises.

Inspired by the goal of Kuroshio Town, a coastal community in southern Japan, to have zero casualties from the next tsunami, this study will focus on a tsunami preparedness program to save everyone’s life. The first step in the program is to determine how many people in a tsunami hazard zone can be protected using existing horizontal and vertical evacuation procedures and shelters. The people who live or work in tsunami hazard zones but cannot or will not use these shelters are identified as “unprotected”. A possible solution to save the “unprotected” is to offer a shelter-in-place option to complement the horizontal and vertical evacuation options. Such a shelter-in-place option would provide protection for those unable or unwilling to use horizontal or vertical evacuation facilities. The shelter-in-place option would offer customized protection for individuals and businesses free of contagious diseases found in gatherings associated with horizontal or vertical evacuation shelters. To be effective, the shelter-in-place option must be immediately accessible to protect people from drowning, being crushed, being hit by floating objects, suffocation by ingesting silt laden water, fires, and hypothermia. An example of a shelter-in-place product is a patented, spherical aluminum capsule that floats on the tsunami protecting people from fire, cold water, being crushed, ingesting contaminated water, being hit by floating objects, and drowning. Since the capsule floats, there is no need to accurately predict tsunami flooding heights. This study includes numerical model simulations for 20 capsules subjected to 3 tsunami flooding scenarios in Newport, Oregon indicating the capsules have a low probability of being washed out to sea. Using a shelter-in-place option, along with horizontal and vertical evacuation options, zero casualties from the next tsunami is possible.

The severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), which causes coronavirus disease (COVID-19), was first identified in Wuhan, China, in December 2019. As of 20 October 2020, the virus had infected 8,202,552 people, with 220,061 deaths in US, and in countries around the world, over 38 million people have become infected and over one million have died. The virus usually spreads via respiratory droplets from an infected person. At the time of compiling this paper, while countries around the world are still striving to find a “pharmaceutical intervention (PI)”, including treatments and vaccines, they are left with only “non-pharmaceutical interventions (NPIs)”, such as physical distancing, wearing masks, and maintaining personal hygiene. In the US, all 50 states, the District of Columbia, and five US territories issued mandatory stay-at-home orders between March 1 and 31 May 2020 to lower the risk of virus transmission. This study empirically examined how social connectedness and anxiety interact with shelter-in-place compliance and advisories during the pandemic. The study collected information from 494 adults using an online survey during April and July 2020.

Many aspects of the Covid-19 pandemic and the public health response to it will undoubtedly contribute to widespread emotional distress and increased risk for psychiatric illness. Health care providers have an important role in addressing these emotional outcomes.

Background and AimCoercive measures (CMs), such as involuntary psychiatric admission and mechanical restraint, are considered a last resort in the treatment of people with psychiatric disorders. Although numerous factors influencing its use have been identified, the impact of a pandemic and in particular restrictions like lockdowns on CMs are still unclear. Thus the aim of the present retrospective study was to examine the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic, especially the lockdowns, on CMs in Austria.MethodThis retrospective exploratory study assessed all CMs in Austria, except for the federal state of Vorarlberg, between 01.01.2018 and 31.12.2020. Descriptive statistics and regression models were performed.ResultsDuring the three-year study period, 40,012 individuals (45.9% females, mean age 51.3 years) had 66,124 involuntary psychiatric admissions for an average of 10.9 days and restraint in 33.9%. In periods of COVID-19 lockdowns (2020 vs. 2018/2019), CMs in form of involuntary admissions were significantly fewer (OR:0.93, p=.0001) but longer (11.6 (SD:16) vs. 10.9 (SD:15.8) days). The likelihood of involuntary admission during lockdowns was only associated with year (2020 vs. 2018/19, p=0.0002), but not with sex (p=0.814), age (p=0.310), use of mechanical restraint (p=0.653) or type of ward (p=0.843).Conclusions:Restrictions such as lockdowns are affecting CMs and have resulted in fewer but longer involuntary psychiatric admissions during weeks of lockdown in Austria. The result strengthens previous knowledge that showed the dependence on external factors when using CMs, but requires further clarification with regard to the causality and the association with outcomes that are intended to be prevented, such as suicides.Disclosure of InterestNone Declared

The COVID-19 travel restriction orders have significantly reduced travel and generally lowered the risk of road traffic collisions, but many accounts suggest an increase in risky driving behaviors and consequent fatal crashes during the shelter-in-place period. Risky driving behaviors including failure to wear a seatbelt, speeding, and drunk driving were observed to be the leading contributing factors of the fatalities. Whereas the fatal crashes that characterized the shelter-in-place period has become a topical issue, the high number of crashes that occurred as a result of the panic shopping and increased travel activities in the weeks before the shelter-in-place order have not received much attention. In this study, we investigated the differences and similarities in the effects of the factors that were associated with crash injury severity before, during, and after the shelter-in-place order. The study used crash data from the state of Alabama for the 2020 calendar year. Preliminary data analysis revealed interesting variations in crash trends across the three periods. It was found that the highest weekly crash frequency occurred in the immediate week before the shelter-in-place order, and a higher proportion of crashes that occurred between 6 p.m. and 6 a.m. and those that occurred in residential areas happened during the shelter-in-place period while shopping area crashes, manufacturing/industrial area crashes, rear-end collisions, and crashes involving female drivers occurred mostly before the shelter-in-place period. Three injury severity models were developed using random parameters logit with heterogeneity in means and variances approach. The results showed that major injury crashes occurred mainly in rural areas and occurred due to speeding, fatigue driving, and failure to use a seatbelt. The effects of these factors on crash outcome did not vary across the year, indicating that the shelter-in-place order did not impact the driving behaviors of the driver population that got into major injury crashes. The results further revealed that the effects of some crash factors, such as road type and manner of collision, varied across the periods. The findings of the study provide a deeper, data-driven understanding of how driving behaviors and associated crash outcomes may be affected by extreme events such as the COVID-19 shelter-in-place.

State and local governments imposed social distancing measures in March and April 2020 to contain the spread of the novel coronavirus disease (COVID-19). These measures included bans on large social gatherings; school closures; closures of entertainment venues, gyms, bars, and restaurant dining areas; and shelter-in-place orders. We evaluated the impact of these measures on the growth rate of confirmed COVID-19 cases across US counties between March 1, 2020, and April 27, 2020. An event study design allowed each policy's impact on COVID-19 case growth to evolve over time. Adoption of government-imposed social distancing measures reduced the daily growth rate of confirmed COVID-19 cases by 5.4 percentage points after one to five days, 6.8 percentage points after six to ten days, 8.2 percentage points after eleven to fifteen days, and 9.1 percentage points after sixteen to twenty days. Holding the amount of voluntary social distancing constant, these results imply that there would have been ten times greater spread of COVID-19 by April 27 without shelter-in-place orders (ten million cases) and more than thirty-five times greater spread without any of the four measures (thirty-five million cases). Our article illustrates the potential danger of exponential spread in the absence of interventions, providing information relevant to strategies for restarting economic activity.

Among public facilities, facilities belonging to Multi-Group (I) include high-rise buildings, tunnels, and subway stations, and the location of Shelter in Place (SIP) is an important factor in the safety of citizens. However, subway evacuation maps usually induce evacuation to ground level or the tunnel of a subway platform without considering the location of SIP. In other words, since the location of the SIP is not determined, conditions, such as ventilation, air conditioning facilities, and structural durability required for the SIP cannot be satisfied. It is difficult to suggest the location of SIP because the domestic standards limit only the time it takes to move from the outside to the facility designated as SIP during an emergency evacuation. Therefore, in this study, when there is a situation of emergency evacuation in the subway, the total allowed time to evacuate to SIP is limited to 6 min. We designate a space that can accommodate the number of evacuees at the location and compare and analyze the results of the evacuation simulation using six scenarios. Additionally, suggestions are made for improvement methods relating to evacuation as well as the proposal of reinforcement methods through an experiment to satisfy the structural requirements of SIP in subway stations.