As of April 12, 2020, a total of 389 cases of coronavirus disease were confirmed in Jordan. To control this imminent threat, Jordan has enforced public health infection prevention and control measures, called for social distancing, seized all forms of inbound and outbound movement and international travel, and enacted the Defence Law that transferred the authority to the Minister of Defence to work and formulate orders according to the situation. In an effort to support the government in anticipating the requirements of the health system in the upcoming period, an in-depth reflection and examination of different scenarios of the disease spread were developed. This viewpoint suggests different strategies and measures for case detection and contact tracing, clinical management of cases, public health system functioning, and civil society organizations’ contribution. It is necessary to accelerate containment of the disease to protect the economy and to maintain the continuity of some activities to mitigate the subsequent social, economic, and financial impacts. This requires finding a coping mechanism for a period that may be prolonged until laboratories develop a vaccine. Specifically, it is strongly recommended to promote community health awareness toward public health prevention and control measures, increase the efficiency and comprehensiveness of the epidemiological investigation and active and passive surveillance, and employ technology and digital health solutions to track cases and contacts. It is also recommended to increase and expand resources of intensive care units including respirators, increase the capacity and the number of trained health staff in the area of public health and epidemiology, ensure continued provision of essential public health programs, and mobilize the resources of nongovernmental sectors and donors to provide services for refugees and vulnerable populations.

In this viewpoint, we present public policies and public health strategies for a gradual lockdown lifting during the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) crisis in two country cases, Jordan and the United Arab Emirates. While managing pandemics is critical in terms of preparedness, response, and recovery, it is equally vital to ensure that the measures for a lockdown exit are both efficient and effective. It is critical to learn from first-wave lessons to systematize responses during times of crisis and execute appropriate public policies and public health strategies. This viewpoint highlights the importance of the following during lockdown lifting: pandemic control, health care capacity, training, scaling up of resources and systems, and priority setting of public policies by acknowledging challenges, developing policy insights, and setting the policy direction. The systematic approaches and leadership thinking required for lifting lockdowns during a crisis include the three Rs: Readiness, Responses, and Resilience & Recovery.

Introduction: Dubai city made a significant leap forward, which aligns with the vision of leadership, in the region’s eHealth services by adopting a unified electronic medical record system across the country. Electronic medical records provide a better, more efficient standard of care and a vital database that will streamline the administrative process and promote better outcomes with less utilization of resources. Medical records form an essential part in patient management and include a variety of patient data information that might be sensitive. Therefore, the primary challenge is to maintain data privacy of the electronic medical records. Objective: Current studies to measure the user and health provider perceptions of electronic medical records data privacy are limited in the region. We aimed to investigate the perceptions of healthcare professionals and healthcare users toward electronic medical records and data privacy in eHealthcare facilities in Dubai. Methods: In this quantitative descriptive study, we explored the perceptions towards electronic medical records and data privacy using an online survey as a data collection tool. The dependent variables were the user and provider perceptions, while the independent variables included gender, nationality, income and age. A random sample of 201 eHealthcare facilities professionals and users was included. Results: The findings of the study revealed that most healthcare professionals and users agreed on the presence of good eHealth data protection practices and privacy principles in Dubai. There was a statistical correlation between the surveyed privacy practice perceptions and gender, nationality and income. However, age had no statistically significant association. Conclusions: These research findings can influence policymakers and stakeholders when developing electronic medical records and data privacy policies and guidelines across the United Arab Emirates’ healthcare facilities, in particular, during the implementation of unified electronic medical records. Future research could investigate the effect of the specific demographic variables on the perception of privacy among eHealthcare facility users that might influence electronic medical records and data privacy.

In less than two months of its detection in Jordan, lineage B.1.1.529 recognized as Omicron, is constituting 55% of all confirmed coronavirus disease of 2019 (COVID-19) infections causing a rise in the daily cases in the country. Herein, we report on 500 cases, among the first identified Omicron infections in Jordan. We also report on the genomic diversity of 25 Omicron viruses identified in nasopharyngeal swabs from Jordan. Our results indicated that 96% of study participants were vaccinated who had asymptomatic, mild or moderate disease. One unvaccinated individual developed severe disease. The median age of Omicron cases was 30 years, and most frequent disease symptoms were: fever, coughing, sore throat, runny nose, general fatigue and muscle/joint pain. Viral genomic analysis results revealed that the BA.1 is the dominant Omicron sublineage in Jordan, with 45 to 58 total mutations. We identified a few amino acid modifications that could impact the accuracy of some polymerase chain reaction (PCR) tests. In summary, infections caused by BA.1 seem milder than earlier infections. However, it is unknown whether this change is due to alterations in the immunity landscape of the infected population or is the result of viral genetic mutations that reduced viral virulence. Hence, comparing similar studies from different countries is likely to give us a get a better understanding of this variant, its behavior and the impact on disease characteristics.

UNSTRUCTURED As of April 12, 2020, a total of 389 cases of coronavirus disease were confirmed in Jordan. To control this imminent threat, Jordan has enforced public health infection prevention and control measures, called for social distancing, seized all forms of inbound and outbound movement and international travel, and enacted the Defence Law that transferred the authority to the Minister of Defence to work and formulate orders according to the situation. In an effort to support the government in anticipating the requirements of the health system in the upcoming period, an in-depth reflection and examination of different scenarios of the disease spread were developed. This viewpoint suggests different strategies and measures for case detection and contact tracing, clinical management of cases, public health system functioning, and civil society organizations’ contribution. It is necessary to accelerate containment of the disease to protect the economy and to maintain the continuity of some activities to mitigate the subsequent social, economic, and financial impacts. This requires finding a coping mechanism for a period that may be prolonged until laboratories develop a vaccine. Specifically, it is strongly recommended to promote community health awareness toward public health prevention and control measures, increase the efficiency and comprehensiveness of the epidemiological investigation and active and passive surveillance, and employ technology and digital health solutions to track cases and contacts. It is also recommended to increase and expand resources of intensive care units including respirators, increase the capacity and the number of trained health staff in the area of public health and epidemiology, ensure continued provision of essential public health programs, and mobilize the resources of nongovernmental sectors and donors to provide services for refugees and vulnerable populations.

MENAHIA (Middle East and North African Health Informatics Association) is the International Medical Informatics Association chapter dedicated to the Middle East and North Africa region. This region is rapidly growing in terms of the use of health informatics or what has been recently coined “digital health”. Human health is highly affected by the health of the environment, animal health, food, nutrition, climate change, and many other factors that are beyond the biological or genetic structure of human beings. The impact of animal health and the health of the environment on people's health is an old phenomenon but recent reemerging and appearance of diseases have clearly demonstrated the link between these. The Novel Coronavirus disease (COVID-19) that almost all of us have been suffering from is an example of this.A number of countries in the region have already shown the depth and the work that they do to integrate the concept of ‘One Health’ in the public health surveillance system as they have described the work that has been done to capture data from databases other than those dealing with human beings. The examples that were provided to monitor the health of animals, agriculture, environmental health, climate change, and man-made and natural disasters are just examples of what countries have been registering in their databases and informing the health authorities of these changes and emerging trends.