A county-level analysis of association between social vulnerability and COVID-19 cases in Khuzestan Province, Iran

Investigating the impacts of socio-economic vulnerability indicators on COVID-19: A case study of Yazd, Iran

“…Chatters et al showed that discrimination in access to medicine, vaccine and healthcare services may lead to higher prevalence of COVID-19 and the continuity of transmission chain of the pandemic at the community level [ 21 ]. Further, one study in Brazil found that the great heterogeneity in hospital capacity across the country posed an important challenge for resource allocation to patients during the pandemic [ 22 ]. The indicators of immigrant population (families who immigrated to Yazd and selected this city as the living place from the other provinces of Iran or other countries like Afghanistan and Iraq) and age showed significant correlation with the generated COVID-19 GIS maps.…”

“…On the other hand, carrying out reforms and development of areas around the traditional and historical region will cause the continuous settlement of the population in these areas and prevent migration from the center to the suburbs of the Yazd city [ 21 ]. Additionally, the social, economic and spatial inequalities can be seen in the city of Yazd, like many densely populated cities [ 22 ]. Yazd also had a high rate of prevalence of COVID-19 among the cities of Iran since the beginning of the disease [ 23 ].…”

Main social vulnerability indicators in the COVID-19 pandemic in Iran

“…Since scientific data and viewpoints of experts were considered in the development of the main social vulnerability indicators in COVID-19, remote sensing methods and GIS are the appropriate tools for mapping social vulnerability in the COVID-19 pandemic in the case of existing data related to social vulnerability indicators ( 1 , 16 , 44 ). The output of this study, in the form of a questionnaire, is hoped to be used by most disaster scholars and practitioners in this field to improve the recognition of more vulnerable areas and prioritize the distribution of resources to ensure equity for residents during COVID-19 and other probable epidemics in the future.…”

“…Social vulnerability plays the main role in exposing communities and countries to disasters and emergencies, even more so than other forms of vulnerability such as physical, economic, or environmental ( 1 ). Scholars have used a variety of terms to describe social vulnerability and also have determined the relevant indicators, especially in natural disasters.…”

“…Additionally, the literature review indicates that the communities with higher social vulnerability have more adverse outcomes during and following a disaster ( 10 – 12 ). Iran is a disaster-prone country, and due to its geographical and ethnic diversities, we have few studies and inadequate information about indicators of social vulnerability in Iran ( 1 , 13 , 14 ).…”