PUBH6006 Emergency Preparedness and Response Plan for Covid-19 Assignment Sample

Community Health and Disease Prevention

Introduction to Covid-19

The Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic is affecting a large number of families, individuals, societies, and communities all across the world. It has changed the daily status of the economy, social, and public health due to which now there are hard times for survival. It has evolved around the world within a short period. The characteristics on which global pandemics are considered are speed, scale, severity, and social and economical disruption. Here, this document will provide the emergency and preparedness plan in public health to cater to the needs of communities in COVID-19. This encounters national and subnational levels contribution for compliance according to the strategies developed.

Different Approaches to Health Emergency Preparedness and Response

In this present time, the COVID-19 is a new disease that is very different from other diseases such as Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) and Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (MERS). The virus of this disease spreads rapidly and the outbreak grows at an exponential rate. No therapeutic procedures have been proven to treat and prevent coronavirus from spreading. From the data collected from various sources, it has been said that 5% of cases have critically affected by the disease, 15% cases experience severe disease, 40% cases experienced the symptoms like pneumonia at a moderate level, and 40% cases with mild disease. The overall goal of the countries is to control the pandemics of disease by decelerating the broadcast and reducing mortality related with COVID-19 (Gilbert et al., 2020). The strategies and approaches include:

• Mobilization: It includes the communities and sectors to take ownership and participates in response to prevent the rise in cases by maintaining hand-hygiene, social distancing, and respiratory etiquette.
• Control: This point helps to prevent the cases from getting affected by community transmission by rapid finding and isolating the cases. The individuals are to be tracked, quarantined, and supported by contacts.
• Suppress: It is the management of community transmission by taking appropriate infection prevention and control measures to enforce the measures for population distancing and taking appropriate actions at domestic and international level in the country.
• Reduce: This emphasizes the provision of appropriate medical care and curing the individuals having chances to get infected by COVID-19. It ensures the continuity of health and social services also defending frontline workers and susceptible populations.
• Develop: Choosing and realizing current and therapeutic vaccines to deliver at, and large scale and address the need of the population.

To cope up with the spread of COVID-19, the approach is to be followed in which every individual, community, business, private, and government organization has to play important role in stopping COVID-19 (Health Organization, 2020).

• Individuals: Individuals must opt for behaviors such as touching their faces, washing hands, social distancing, respiratory etiquette, isolation from sick children, and following movement restrictions to protect themselves.
• Communities: Communities must follow the policies and procedures to ensure that they follow planned and adapted feedbacks at local settings. The major functions such as education, protection of vulnerable groups, provision by health workers, case investigation, and tracking to support every affected part of the community.
• Governments: Governments are responsible for enabling and empowering individuals to manage community responses through communication, education, engagement capacity building, and support. For the preparedness plan, the government must also treat the patients of COVID-19 efficiently and preserve other vital health services
• Private institutions: Private institutions should be set up to develop vital services such as food chains, public functions, and the trade of therapeutic supplies. The corporations could deliver invention and knowhow up to scale and manufacture medical supplies. Mostly the reasonable delivery of laboratory diagnostics, personal protective equipment, ventilators, medical oxygen, and other essential medical equipment at fair prices for research and treatment by using diagnostics, treatment, and vaccines (Nkengasong & Mankoula, 2020).

The Response to COVID-19 would include many approaches that consist of organization and development, engaging and activating communities to limit the acquaintance, find, test, separate and care for cases and quarantine interactions to regulate spread, provision of medical care maintain vital health facilities to lessen mortality, adapt strategies based on hazard, measurements, and weakness, suppressing community transmission, and transitioning to and maintain a steady-state of low-level or no spread. The action plan includes the planning of the whole societal approach and realistic approach to reduce the spread and mortality while nourishing in society. The aims should be developed to ensure the criteria such as:

1. Transmission of Covid-19 is controlled

2. Public health infrastructure and health systems have the proper detection, testing, isolation, and quarantine mechanisms in place.

3. Estimation and management of outbreak risks to know their vulnerability and reduce them.

4. Establishment of workplace preventive measures

5. Management of risk to imported cases.

6. Full engagement of communities

Bottom-Up Approach versus Top-Down Approach to Health Emergency Preparedness and Response

The "community resilience: deals with thinking enough for society and responding according to the disaster that is going to happen. Mounting of economic and human losses are there at the time of serious emergencies like a disease outbreak, storms, flooding, and wildfire. The policymakers, populations, and practitioners aspire to withstand, emerge, recover, and anticipate these types of disasters.

There is always a model and measurements to take the appropriate actions to address the problem's complexity and development of the interest of public leaders. Moreover, in any of the approaches follows, the emphasis is laid on physical structures, health of people, social and behavioral sciences. The top-down or bottom-up approach follows effective communication to deliver standardized and centralized services to people. The top-down approach is designed with objectives and precision to make the comparisons of inputs given in certain areas and units for analysis. In contrast, the bottom-up approach in COVID-19 deals with employing the staff with the expertise as well as non-expertise by conducting meetings of resilience and bear on certain conditions (World Simcock et al., 2020).

Despite this, the participatory process should be there to address these types of issues in assessing community resilience. It helps in understanding the risks and resilience in the community to get more benefits. This way it helps in enhancing ownership at the local level and assessing the legitimacy to foster the actions at multiple levels. However, both approaches have their importance and collaborative assessment should be carried out to generate social capital and cohesion. These traits often associated with community resilience. The resources needed in COVID-19 should be optimally utilized with the integration of social, physical, and natural systems to enable collaborative, participatory assessments in disastrous situations (World Health Organization, 2020).

Application of Theories and Models of Health Emergency Preparedness and Response

The theories and models are applied to identify the cognitive, affective, emotional, social relationship, and interaction factors have on risk prediction and assessment to preparedness for disaster and emergency. The behavioral theory relates to the application of disaster and emergency preparedness systems across the country. The major objective of the behavioral, cognitive, and social model is based on the identification of health preparedness plans and investigate other matters, assessment of specific regional preparedness towards the disastrous situation, and investigation of methods to analyze the plans. It provides information on the risk management policies and processes to develop and combine information for interventions (Wenham, Smith & Morgan, 2020).

Conclusion on Emergency Preparedness and Response Plan

Hence, the system should be designed in such a way that the country could get the opportunity to develop and emerge robust health systems and improve worldwide relationship to face the threats. In the essay, we focused on COVID-19 emergency preparedness and response systems, it is significant to retain in mind the depth and breadth of significances across the globe. The instructions must be educated from pandemics and ensure that the country follows a positive legacy and make the country a safer place to live in.

References for Emergency Preparedness and Response Plan

Gilbert, M., Pullano, G., Pinotti, F., Valdano, E., Poletto, C., Boëlle, P. Y., & Gutierrez, B. (2020). Preparedness and vulnerability of African countries against importations of COVID-19: a modeling study. The Lancet, 395(10227), 871-877.

Health Organization. (2020). Coronavirus disease 2019 ( COVID-19): situation report, 53.

Nkengasong, J. N., & Mankoula, W. (2020). The looming threat of COVID-19 infection in Africa: act collectively, and fast. The Lancet, 395(10227), 841-842.

Wenham, C., Smith, J., & Morgan, R. (2020). COVID-19: the gendered impacts of the outbreak. The Lancet, 395(10227), 846-848.

World Health Organization. (2020). Critical preparedness, readiness, and response actions for COVID-19: interim guidance, 22 March 2020 (No. WHO/2019-nCoV/Community_Actions/2020.3). World Health Organization.

World Simcock, R., Thomas, T. V., Mercy, C. E., Filippi, A. R., Katz, M. A., Pereira, I. J., & Saeed, H. (2020). COVID-19: Global radiation oncology’s targeted response for pandemic preparedness. Clinical and translational radiation oncology.

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