Book Description

The COVID-19 pandemic has rapidly affected our communication and lifestyle and upended all regular routines of daily life. Social distancing, economic disruption, and challenges to public health brought about a new order of government policies. Besides, social responsibilities adapted many new norms due to the measures taken by authorities to control the spread of the pandemic. The current global situation offers an opportunity for joint communal effort at national and international levels along with social awareness and commitment to official instructions. Significant enquiries given in this book, from Asian and Middle Eastern countries, address attendant issues concerning the COVID-19 pandemic and the specific roles played by government policy, public awareness, social behaviour, and the role of technology during the pandemic. Selected papers from Current Trends in the Middle East: Virtual International Joint Conference on COVID-19 Global Impacts (V-The 4th ICCTME 2021, 9 – 10 March 2021) discuss ‘how leaders at all levels battled the pandemic and their concerted efforts successfully confronted the crisis and avoided panic’. This theme implies several layers of strategic planning which as a whole have attempted at shaping the society in a way to reduce the risk of COVID-19 transmission while assuring integrity, obtaining national solidarity and reinforcing public trust in governments. Additional investigations in the book analyze the role of technology and pivotal approaches in accordance with the need to embrace the Fourth Industrial Revolution (IR4.0). We hope that this approach will open the floor for attracting novel contributions from great minds with an awareness of protecting cultural heritage. In particular, specific attention is given to examining the role of technology usage in mediating the interaction between people and institutions for sustainable living, including the interaction between all members of society and technology. Along the same lines, a connotative analysis provides insight into how and why the application of smart digital infrastructures into hospitals and houses might prevent contagious diseases in the COVID-19 era. Our authors highlight key trends and insights from different perspectives and discuss various strategies and roles adopted by local and international institutions. Willingness to learn from others is the idea behind this book. In the light of this idea, organized preparations and well-coordinated initiatives produced favourable results in this collection. Through its discussion of the current crisis management via a wide range of information and experiences in sharing knowledge, experiences, and skills from Malaysia, Indonesia, Iran, Pakistan, Turkey and Palestine, this book aims to be a part of the scientific environment that deliberates to decrease the number of infections and deaths, in relation to the COVID-19 pandemic