Studies and Advances to Evaluate the Impact of Epidemic Diseases in Modern Times

Dear Colleagues,

We are currently experiencing an unprecedented situation across the world with the spread of the COVID-19 pandemic. As a result of the coronavirus SARS-CoV-2 and its fast expansion, thousands of human beings have passed away, and millions have been infected. This situation has produced enormous pressure on the healthcare sector, with hospitals, medical resources, physicians, and nurses close to exhaustion. The main directive of governments of the hardest-hit countries has been to isolate the population. These restrictive and dramatic guidelines, implemented to control and reduce the advance of the virus, have arguably had a positive effect by saving thousands of lives, but they have not been without consequences, both on the individuals who have seen their lives upended in different ways and on the management of the largest cities, as well as the productive fabric of each country. In the former, restricting the mobility of a population has been shown as an effective method to reduce the evolution of the pandemic, but the produced psychological cost has not been considered in depth. In the latter, the considerable reduction of public transport services and the severe diminution of travel using personal vehicles have modified the organization of cities and impacted the demand for fuel, leading to significant reductions in fuel prices. Finally, at the economic level, most countries have experienced a reduction of more than 5% of their Gross Domestic Product, which represents a strong recession.

This Special Issue of the International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health (IJERPH) focuses on the current state of the knowledge of the diverse issues related to the COVID-19 pandemic. New research papers, reviews, case reports, and extended conference papers are welcome to this issue. Other manuscript types accepted include methodological papers, position papers, brief reports, and commentaries.

We will accept manuscripts from different disciplines, including the healthcare domain, political and economic sciences, social and psychological sciences, computer science, transport management, and environmental science. Some of the most important areas include but are not limited to:

1. Psychological effects in population due to the isolation process;
2. Managing transport in cities during confinement;
3. Influence related to SARS-CoV-2 exposure in public transport services;
4. Statistical analysis of the evolution of the pandemic;
5. Dynamic evaluation of medical resources during the pandemic wave;
6. Environmental effects produced by the isolation of the population;
7. Effects of the different guidelines adopted by affected countries;
8. Related health problems associated with the COVID-19;
9. Secondary effects of the virus in healed patients.
10.   Political impact and cost related to the adopted countermeasures;
11. Economic impact related to the reduction of activity during the outbreak;

Simulations of the virus spreading or its associated problems in any application domain.

Dr. Alberto Fernández Isabel
Prof. Dr. Isaac Martín De Diego
Dr. Juan Francisco Blanco Blanco
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

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Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health is an international peer-reviewed open access monthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2500 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.