Nurunnabi Mohammad, Almusharraf Norah
Department of Accounting, College of Business Administration.
Applied Linguistics Department, College of Humanities, Prince Sultan University, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.
J Public Health Res. 2021 Jan 27;9(Suppl 1):1957. doi: 10.4081/jphr.2020.1957. eCollection 2020 Nov 17.
The coronavirus disease (COVID-19) has affected the entire globe, and various mythologies argue about its diagnosis, cure, and prevention. Globally, as of September 18, 2020, there have been 30.055 million confirmed cases, including 0.943 million deaths. The nationwide closures are impacting over 60% of the world's student population. This study aimed to explore the social distancing policies and universities' reopening after COVID-19 in G20 countries (19 member countries and the European Union). The study is based on documentary analysis. G20 members represent around 80% of the world's economic output, two-thirds of the global population (including more than half of the world's poor), and 75% of international trade. Based on documentary analysis, the study revealed that there is a policy dilemma among G20 countries regarding school reopening and a variety of conflicting policies within each country. Based on a sample of 838 universities in the USA, 66% of universities (552 of 838) plan for in-person instruction, while only 7% are planning for a completely online teaching mode in the fall 2020 semester. Interestingly, none of the private universities in this study are planning to implement an online teaching mode. Policymakers need an integrated set of policy guidelines for school reopening, considering the evaluation of current COVID- 19 pandemic circumstances and social distancing capacity.
冠状病毒病（COVID-19）已经影响了全球，各种说法都在争论其诊断、治疗和预防方法。截至2020年9月18日，全球已有3005.5万确诊病例，其中包括94.3万例死亡病例。全国范围的封锁正在影响全球超过60%的学生群体。本研究旨在探讨二十国集团（G20）国家（19个成员国和欧盟）在COVID-19疫情后的社交距离政策以及大学重新开学的情况。该研究基于文献分析。G20成员国约占世界经济产出的80%、全球人口的三分之二（包括一半以上的世界贫困人口）以及75%的国际贸易。基于文献分析，该研究表明，G20国家在学校重新开学问题上存在政策困境，且每个国家内部都有各种相互冲突的政策。以美国838所大学为样本，66%的大学（838所中的552所）计划进行面授教学，而在2020年秋季学期，只有7%的大学计划采用完全在线教学模式。有趣的是，本研究中的私立大学均未计划实施在线教学模式。政策制定者需要一套综合的学校重新开学政策指导方针，同时要考虑对当前COVID-19疫情形势和社交距离能力的评估。
