Research Question
How has the current interventions employed in Australia to control and monitor the spread of COVID-19 been helpful in public settings with focus on the transport sector.
Background
The novel coronavirus was identified on 7th January 2020 by the Chinese scientist. As of 21st April 2022, a total number of 5.4 million cases have been reported to date in Australia (1). These high numbers have been confirmed to have been caused by the human-to-human transmission of the virus. Getting infected by this virus can cause illness ranging from common cold to more severe respiratory diseases and eventually can lead to death. In Australia as of 21st April 2022 the total number of deaths reported was 6900(1).
From the moment the situation started becoming more serious and concerning, an immediate action was called for and therefore the Australian government had to intervene and employ all the necessary measures to help in the monitoring and control of COVID-19 transmission(2). The current measures put in place are vast but much remains to be done. They include social distancing in public and in transport systems, quarantining, hand washing and the use of face masks or coverings which were recommended in public spaces to minimize the risk of human-to-human transmissions.
Now two years since the inception of COVID-19 in the country there are still new cases of the virus being reported and still there are no signs of it coming to an end(1). This raises a question of how much effective these measures are and therefore the need to analyze each individual measure and see if it is effective in achieving the goal of minimizing the rate of transmission. It was found at that the application of social distancing techniques were highly effective in flattening the curve and reducing the number of daily cases(3). The technique of social distancing together with quarantining was also confirmed to be highly effective(4). And one form of quarantining was the isolation of patients confirmed to be having the virus from the rest of the population. The other measures too has been under study to determine how they have been helpful and this project proposal will try to fill the gap by assessing these interventions employed within the country and also researching if there’s any best practice left out in monitoring and controlling the COVID-19 transmissions. One thing not to be forgotten is that since the introduction of the COVID-19’s vaccines, there has been a huge decline in the number of cases as time progresses. It shows that it will be the best response in the fight against COVID-19 together with adoption of correct measures to bring about awareness within the population on the importance of vaccination.
Accessibility which is often used to measure the wealth of an area, becomes its worst enemy during a pandemic. Transport system which is the variable for accessibility is the force that has better explained the large numbers of cases in the country. This fact has also led to policies and better measures adopted to control transmissions arising from such conditions.
The study to analyse the situation of COVId-19 transmissions is yet to be determined that’s why a qualitative research project has been proposed to look into how helpful the current interventions employed in Australia to control and monitor the spread of COVID-19 have been in public settings with focus on the transport sector.
Methods
A small scale qualitative study is proposed as this will be the best technique in determining how useful are the employed measures, and the results found will be a research with empirical evidence.
Setting
Participants who have never come to contact with the virus and those that have contracted the infection before will be recruited. The participants must be aged 18 years and above as they will provide a better understanding of the transmission patterns by describing the practices they have been carrying out. They are mature enough and the information they give will be trusted. And for a correct report to be drawn, participants who are literate and with proficient level in English speaking will be considered as they will be able to give their consent before the start of data collection. The method used for recruiting the participants will be looking for people residing in highly dense cities and individuals who use transport systems almost daily.
The proposed study will only take place so long as the current practices are still in place. Already a sample of 10 participants has been selected and response from each individual recorded. This method is the best way to get all the necessary information about COVID-19 transmission and with time more methods will be adopted to give out a clear evidence and proper information that is trusted.
Data Collection
The qualitative study will use interviews by personally asking participants questions in one-to-one conversations, observations and distributing questionnaires as they are the best qualitative research method(5).
Each participant will be interviewed separately and the interview questions will aim at asking participants important questions that will turn to be helpful to the data sample that the study is collecting. The set of questions directed to participants who have never been infected will be different from the questions directed to the ones who have come to contact with the virus.
Due to the ongoing pandemic, preventive measures will be adhered to, to avoid putting the lives of the participants and the interviewers at risk. This too will be applied by the ones distributing questionnaires. The individuals conducting interviews and distribution of questionnaires will be volunteers from the community selected by the research study leader. A total of four volunteers will be required.
The questionnaires will be distributed to the participants in highly dense areas and the participants who use transport systems almost daily. They will be identified by randomly asking individuals who use the public service vehicles and taxis. After giving the questionnaires they will be asked to fill the questions at their own convenient time and then later submit at designated locations that they will be shown. The time period allocated for the collection of questionnaires will be two weeks to give the participants enough time to fill out the questions without pressing them.
The interviews will be audio recorded and any observed attribute will be noted down. Key ideas from the notes will then be selected to complement the audio recorded interviews.
Data Analysis
The responses received from the questionnaires will be gathered and then organized together with the audio recordings and the notes that were taken. This real-time data will then be analyzed qualitatively using content analysis.
The qualitative content analysis will be used to identify the measures that helped participants who never got in contact with the virus and also measures that were adhered to but still individuals ended up by contracting the virus for the participants who contracted COVID-19. The measures that were helpful will then be confirmed to be effective and the others to be not. The analyzed data will also help identify measures effective in transport system setting and public setting.
The analysis will be conducted by few researchers available and then checked by the third researcher who is the leader of the research study project.
Ethical Considerations
Research ethics will have to be considered by the researchers before the study begins. This is important as the study involves data collection from participants and the volunteers who will help in conducting of the research.
Before getting information from the participant, the study has to seek for consent from the participant so as not to violate the participants’ rights. This consent should be communicated in a language known to the interviewer and the individuals distributing questionnaires. The rationale of this is to ensure consent is given in a clear way which can be recorded.
No personal details of the participants will be recorded to ensure that their privacy is respected,
After ethics consideration be the research study team, the proposal will be sent to the institutional review board to get ethics approval and ensure it is up to code before the study begins.
A modification application will be sent to the institution review board for approval in case there will be changes in the methods used in this research study.
Potential Impact
The research project findings will give an overview of the current interventions employed in Australia to control and monitor the spread of COVID-19 in public settings and the transport sector.
The information found out from this study will allow the relevant government authority to devise the best practice that has proven to be helpful and more effective and the measures that are less effective will be dropped. The information will also be used to mitigate the challenges received from the transport sector with respect to COVID-19 transmissions.
The study will advance to give suggestions on interventions required to control COVID-19 transmission such as better design and manufacturing of protective materials that are recyclable and reusable and also managing the movement of people from one point to another. This will be useful in reducing the COVID-19 transmissions.
It is predicted that this qualitative research findings will provide empirical evidence for researchers to use the trusted information for their future quantitative study of a larger scale. Together with this qualitative research study, an understanding on the ways of monitoring and controlling of COVID-19 transmissions will be realized. The adoption of these study findings together with the administering of vaccines by the government will be the first steps of a journey which leads to the reduction of COVID-19 transmissions in the country.
References
Australian Government D of health. Coronavirus (COVID-19) case numbers and statistics [Internet]. 2022. Web.
Commission T, Commission T, March S. Australia ’ s Response to the COVID-19 Pandemic.
Moosa IA. The effectiveness of social distancing in containing COVID-19. Appl Econ. 2020;6292–305.
Girum T, Lentiro K, Geremew M, Migora B, Shewamare S. Girum-2020-Global strategies and effectiveness.pdf. Trop Med Health. 2020;48(91):1–15.
Woodsong, Natasha Mack C, Namey, Kathleen M. Macqueen, Greg Guest E. Qualitative research methods: A data collector’s field guide. 2011. 137 p.