Investigating the current environmental situation in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region during the third wave of COVID-19 pandemic: urban vs. rural context.
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Abouzid M, El-Sherif DM, Al Naggar Y, Alshehri MM, Alothman S, El-Seedi HR, Trabelsi R, Ibrahim OM, Temraz EH, Buimsaedah A, Aziz IA, Alwan M, Al Hasan NHJ, Ragab HN, Koraiem AM, Ahmed MH, Temraz HH, Madeeh AK, Alshareif MO, Elkhafeefi FS, Badis IE, Abdelslam AE, Ali AAM, Kotni NEI, Amer T
BMC Public Health 22 (1) 177 [2022-01-26; online 2022-01-26]
Coronavirus 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic led to a massive global socio-economic tragedy that has impacted the ecosystem. This paper aims to contextualize urban and rural environmental situations during the COVID-19 pandemic in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) Region. An online survey was conducted, 6770 participants were included in the final analysis, and 64% were females. The majority of the participants were urban citizens (74%). Over 50% of the urban residents significantly (p < 0.001) reported a reduction in noise, gathering in tourist areas, and gathering in malls and restaurants. Concerning the pollutants, most urban and rural areas have reported an increase in masks thrown in streets (69.49% vs. 73.22%, resp.; p = 0.003). Plastic bags and hospital waste also increased significantly with the same p-value of < 0.001 in urban areas compared with rural ones. The multifactorial logistic model for urban resident predictors achieved acceptable discrimination (AUROC = 0.633) according to age, crowdedness, noise and few pollutants. The COVID-19 pandemic had a beneficial impact on the environment and at the same time, various challenges regarding plastic and medical wastes are rising which requires environmental interventions.
PubMed 35081927
DOI 10.1186/s12889-021-12313-3
Crossref 10.1186/s12889-021-12313-3
pii: 10.1186/s12889-021-12313-3
pmc: PMC8790551