We evaluated effectiveness of personal protective measures against severe acute respiratory disease coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) infection. Our case-control study included 211 cases of coronavirus ...disease (COVID-19) and 839 controls in Thailand. Cases were defined as asymptomatic contacts of COVID-19 patients who later tested positive for SARS-CoV-2; controls were asymptomatic contacts who never tested positive. Wearing masks all the time during contact was independently associated with lower risk for SARS-CoV-2 infection compared with not wearing masks; wearing a mask sometimes during contact did not lower infection risk. We found the type of mask worn was not independently associated with infection and that contacts who always wore masks were more likely to practice social distancing. Maintaining >1 m distance from a person with COVID-19, having close contact for <15 minutes, and frequent handwashing were independently associated with lower risk for infection. Our findings support consistent wearing of masks, handwashing, and social distancing to protect against COVID-19.
This study aims to select the ideal mixture of small and medium-sized destinations and attractions in Thailand’s Ubon Ratchathani Province in order to find potential wellness destinations and ...attractions. In the study region, 46 attractions and destinations were developed as the service sectors for wellness tourism using the designed wellness framework and the quality level of the attractions and destinations available on social media. Distinct types of tourists, each with a different age and gender, comprise a single wellness tourist group. Due to them, even with identical attractions and sites, every traveler has a different preference. A difficult task for travel agencies is putting together combinations of attractions and places for each tourist group. In this paper, the mathematical formulation of the suggested problem is described, and the optimal solution is achieved using Lingo v.16. Unfortunately, the large size of test instances cannot be solved with Lingo v16. However, the large-scale problem, particularly the case study in the target area, has been solved using a metaheuristic method called AMIS. According to the computation in the final experiment, AMIS can raise the solution quality across all test instances by an average of 3.83 to 8.17 percent. Therefore, it can be concluded that AMIS outperformed all other strategies in discovering the ideal solution. AMIS, GA and DE may lead visitors to attractions that generate 29.76%, 29.58% and 32.20%, respectively, more revenue than they do now while keeping the same degree of preference when the number of visitors doubles. The attractions’ and destinations’ utilization has increased by 175.2 percent over the current situation. This suggests that small and medium-sized enterprises have a significantly higher chance of flourishing in the market.