Showing papers on "Emergency management published in 2020"

Response to COVID-19 in Taiwan: Big Data Analytics, New Technology, and Proactive Testing.

Abstract: COVID-19 occurred just before the Lunar New Year during which time millions of Chinese and Taiwanese were expected to travel for the holidays Taiwan quickly mobilized and instituted specific approaches for case identification, containment, and resource allocation to protect the public health Taiwan enhanced COVID-19 case finding by proactively seeking out patients with severe respiratory symptoms (based on information from the National Health Insurance [NHI] database) who had tested negative for influenza and retested them for COVID-19;1 was found of 113 cases The toll-free number 1922 served as a hotline for citizens to report suspicious symptoms or cases in themselves or others;as the disease progressed, this hotline has reached full capacity, so each major city was asked to create its own hotline as an alternative It is not known how often this hotline has been used The government addressed the issue of disease stigma and compassion for those affected by providing food, frequent health checks, and encouragement for those under quarantine This rapid response included hundreds of action items Taiwan's government learned from its 2003 SARS experience and established a public health response mechanism for enabling rapid actions for the next crisis Well-trained and experienced teams of officials were quick to recognize the crisis and activated emergency management structures to address the emerging outbreak In a crisis, governments often make difficult decisions under uncertainty and time constraints These decisions must be both culturally appropriate and sensitive to the population Through early recognition of the crisis, daily briefings to the public, and simple health messaging, the government was able to reassure the public by delivering timely, accurate, and transparent information regarding the evolving epidemic Taiwan is an example of how a society can respond quickly to a crisis and protect the interests of its citizens

Telehealth for global emergencies: Implications for coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19).

Abstract: The current coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic is again reminding us of the importance of using telehealth to deliver care, especially as means of reducing the risk of cross-contamination caused by close contact. For telehealth to be effective as part of an emergency response it first needs to become a routinely used part of our health system. Hence, it is time to step back and ask why telehealth is not mainstreamed. In this article, we highlight key requirements for this to occur. Strategies to ensure that telehealth is used regularly in acute, post-acute and emergency situations, alongside conventional service delivery methods, include flexible funding arrangements, training and accrediting our health workforce. Telehealth uptake also requires a significant change in management effort and the redesign of existing models of care. Implementing telehealth proactively rather than reactively is more likely to generate greater benefits in the long-term, and help with the everyday (and emergency) challenges in healthcare.

Suspending Classes Without Stopping Learning: China’s Education Emergency Management Policy in the COVID-19 Outbreak

Abstract: Against the backdrop of the COVID-19 outbreak, an emergency policy initiative called “Suspending Classes Without Stopping Learning” was launched by the Chinese government to continue teaching activities as schools across the country were closed to contain the virus. However, there is ambiguity and disagreement about what to teach, how to teach, the workload of teachers and students, the teaching environment, and the implications for education equity. Possible difficulties that the policy faces include: the weakness of the online teaching infrastructure, the inexperience of teachers (including unequal learning outcomes caused by teachers’ varied experience), the information gap, the complex environment at home, and so forth. To tackle the problems, we suggest that the government needs to further promote the construction of the educational information superhighway, consider equipping teachers and students with standardized home-based teaching/learning equipment, conduct online teacher training, include the development of massive online education in the national strategic plan, and support academic research into online education, especially education to help students with online learning difficulties.

Risk Management of COVID-19 by Universities in China

Abstract: The rapid spread of new coronaviruses throughout China and the world in 2019–2020 has had a great impact on China’s economic and social development. As the backbone of Chinese society, Chinese universities have made significant contributions to emergency risk management. Such contributions have been made primarily in the following areas: alumni resource collection, medical rescue and emergency management, mental health maintenance, control of staff mobility, and innovation in online education models. Through the support of these methods, Chinese universities have played a positive role in the prevention and control of the epidemic situation. However, they also face the problems of alumni’s economic development difficulties, the risk of deadly infection to medical rescue teams and health workers, infection of teachers and students, and the unsatisfactory application of information technology in resolving the crisis. In response to these risks and emergency problems, we propose some corresponding solutions for public dissemination, including issues related to medical security, emergency research, professional assistance, positive communication, and hierarchical information-based teaching.

Blockchain technology for enhancing swift-trust, collaboration and resilience within a humanitarian supply chain setting

Abstract: There has been tremendous interest in blockchain technology (BT) (also known as distributed ledger technology) around the globe and across sectors. Following significant success in the financial sector, other sectors, such as humanitarian sector, have started deploying BT at various levels. Although the use of BT in the humanitarian sector is in its infancy, donors and government agencies are increasingly calling for building BT-enabled swift-trust and more collaborative relationships among various humanitarian actors in order to improve the transparency and traceability of disaster relief materials, information exchanges and flow of funds in disaster relief supply chains. Our study, which is informed by organizational information processing theory and relational view, proposes a theoretical model to understand how BT can influence operational supply chain transparency (OSTC) and swift-trust (ST) among actors engaged in disaster relief operations. Our model also shows how BT-enabled ST can further improve collaboration (CO) among actors engaged in disaster relief operations and enhance supply chain resilience. We formulated and tested six research hypotheses, using data gathered from international non-governmental organizations (NGOs) with the help of the Coordinator for Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) database. We received 256 usable responses using a pre-tested survey based instrument designed for key informants. Our results confirm that our six hypotheses were supported. Our study offers significant and valid contributions to the literature on swift-trust, collaboration and supply chain resilience and BT/distributed ledger technology. We have also noted limitations of our study and have offered future research directions.

Hospital Emergency Management Plan During the COVID-19 Epidemic.

Abstract: The confirmed and suspected cases of the 2019 novel coronavirus disease (COVID-19) have increased not only in Wuhan, Hubei Province but also China and the world. Enormous demand for handling the COVID-19 outbreak challenged both the healthcare personnel and medical supply system. In West China Hospital, Emergency Department (ED) undertook the mission of clinical reception, primary diagnosis, and interim treatment for the suspected cases of COVID-19.

Ecological Disasters and Mental Health: Causes, Consequences, and Interventions

Abstract: Ecological disasters highlight the importance of understanding natural disasters as they relate to a changing global climate. Such disasters often have a predictable pattern of evolving over time and anticipated psychological and behavioral problems and community disruptions. Various factors enhance transmission of these adverse effects beyond the geographic location of the ecological disaster, with certain populations being particularly vulnerable to these effects. Understanding the range and pattern of these effects can aid in optimizing interventions. The use of evidence-informed interventions can reduce distress, enhance well-being, and improve functioning for affected individuals and communities. Effective preparedness involves an understanding of these factors, incorporation of them at all stages of disaster management, and continuous education and training for disaster planners and responders.

The vulnerability of vital systems : How 'critical infrastructure' became a security problem

Abstract: This chapter follows a series of important moments in the twentieth-century history of system-vulnerability thinking: the interwar articulation of strategic bombing theory in Europe and the US, which focused on the 'vital targets' of an enemy's industrial system and the development of defence mobilization and emergency preparedness in the US during the Cold War as a means of defending the industrial system against a targeted nuclear attack. The moments also include the emergence of all-hazards planning and 'total preparedness' as paradigms for response to disruptions of vital systems; and the widespread diffusion of formal models for assessing the vulnerability of vital systems. The chapter describes the process through which a new way of defining and intervening in collective security problems emerged over the course of the twentieth century. Critical infrastructure protection is only one such response, and one whose actualization in bureaucratic arrangements, resource flows, and established regimes of security is just beginning to emerge.

Child and adolescent mental health amidst emergencies and disasters.

Abstract: The mental health of children and young people can be disproportionally affected and easily overlooked in the context of emergencies and disasters. Child and adolescent mental health services can contribute greatly to emergency preparedness, resilience and response and, ultimately, mitigate harmful effects on the most vulnerable members of society.

Applications of artificial intelligence for disaster management

Abstract: Natural hazards have the potential to cause catastrophic damage and significant socioeconomic loss. The actual damage and loss observed in the recent decades has shown an increasing trend. As a result, disaster managers need to take a growing responsibility to proactively protect their communities by developing efficient management strategies. A number of research studies apply artificial intelligence (AI) techniques to process disaster-related data for supporting informed disaster management. This study provides an overview of current applications of AI in disaster management during its four phases: mitigation, preparedness, response, and recovery. It presents example applications of different AI techniques and their benefits for supporting disaster management at different phases, as well as some practical AI-based decision support tools. We find that the majority of AI applications focus on the disaster response phase. This study also identifies challenges to inspire the professional community to advance AI techniques for addressing them in future research.

Tourism resilience in the context of integrated destination and disaster management (DM2)

Abstract: The disaster management principles should be integrated into the destination management plans to enhance resilience of tourist destinations to natural disasters. The success of such integration depends on the extent of tourism stakeholder collaboration, but this topic remains understudied, especially in the Caribbean. This paper evaluates tourism resilience in Grenada. It finds that local tourism stakeholders are well aware of the potential damage natural disasters can inflict on the destination but fail to develop effective measures to build destination-wide and organizational resilience. The paper proposes an action framework to aid tourism stakeholders in Grenada to more effectively plan for disasters.

Determining disaster severity through social media analysis: Testing the methodology with South East Queensland Flood tweets

Abstract: Social media was underutilised in disaster management practices, as it was not seen as a real-time ground level information harvesting tool during a disaster. In recent years, with the increasing popularity and use of social media, people have started to express their views, experiences, images, and video evidences through different social media platforms. Consequently, harnessing such crowdsourced information has become an opportunity for authorities to obtain enhanced situation awareness data for efficient disaster management practices. Nonetheless, the current disaster-related Twitter analytics methods are not versatile enough to define disaster impacts levels as interpreted by the local communities. This paper contributes to the existing knowledge by applying and extending a well-established data analysis framework, and identifying highly impacted disaster areas as perceived by the local communities. For this, the study used real-time Twitter data posted during the 2010–2011 South East Queensland Floods. The findings reveal that: (a) Utilising Twitter is a promising approach to reflect citizen knowledge; (b) Tweets could be used to identify the fluctuations of disaster severity over time; (c) The spatial analysis of tweets validates the applicability of geo-located messages to demarcate highly impacted disaster zones.

Applications of industry 4.0 to overcome the COVID-19 operational challenges.

Abstract: Background and aims An epidemic outbreak of COVID-19 has increased the demand for medical equipment, medical accessories along with daily essentials for the safety of healthcare workers. This study aims to identify the operational challenges faced by retailers in providing efficient services. The study also aimed to propose the roadmap of Industry 4.0 to reduce the impact of COVID-19. Methods A detailed literature review is done on an epidemic outbreak and supply chain using appropriate keywords on SCOPUS, Science Direct, Google Scholar. Some relevant industry reports and blogs are also taken to get insights. Results We have identified twelve significant challenges for the retail sectors that are acting as operational barriers and provided the application of Industry 4.0 technologies to deal with it. Conclusion Industry 4.0 can act as a significant driver for reducing the impact of identified challenges on retailers to fight against the pandemic. There is a need to build trust and transparency for the effective management of healthcare essentials. The supply chain partners and government bodies should act wisely for improving the services during COVID-19 and of similar situations. The proposed roadmap provide future research directions for researchers working in the area of epidemic control, supply chain, and disaster management.

Impact Forecasting to Support Emergency Management of Natural Hazards

Abstract: Forecasting and early warning systems are important investments to protect lives, properties, and livelihood. While early warning systems are frequently used to predict the magnitude, location, and timing of potentially damaging events, these systems rarely provide impact estimates, such as the expected amount and distribution of physical damage, human consequences, disruption of services, or financial loss. Complementing early warning systems with impact forecasts has a twofold advantage: It would provide decision makers with richer information to take informed decisions about emergency measures and focus the attention of different disciplines on a common target. This would allow capitalizing on synergies between different disciplines and boosting the development of multihazard early warning systems. This review discusses the state of the art in impact forecasting for a wide range of natural hazards. We outline the added value of impact‐based warnings compared to hazard forecasting for the emergency phase, indicate challenges and pitfalls, and synthesize the review results across hazard types most relevant for Europe. Plain Language Summary Forecasting and early warning systems are important investments to protect lives, properties and livelihood. While such systems are frequently used to predict the magnitude, location, and timing of potentially damaging events, they rarely provide impact estimates, such as the expected physical damage, human consequences, disruption of services, or financial loss. Extending hazard forecast systems to include impact estimates promises many benefits for the emergency phase, for instance, for organizing evacuations. We review and compare the state of the art of impact forecasting across a wide range of natural hazards and outline opportunities and key challenges for research and development of impact forecasting.

Are we there yet? The transition from response to recovery for the COVID-19 pandemic

Abstract: There is no corner of the planet that has not been impacted by the rapid spread of the novel coronavirus, COVID-19. While the COVID-19 pandemic has already had far-reaching socioeconomic consequences commonly associated with natural hazards (such as disruption to society, economic damage, and loss of lives), the response of governments around the world has been unparalleled and unlike anything seen before. Governments are faced with a myriad of multi-dimensional effects of the pandemic, including direct impacts on public health systems and population health and indirect socioeconomic effects including disruption to every single sector of the economy and mass unemployment. There is, additionally, the growing realisation that the timescale associated with this crisis may permanently change the very foundations of societies 'normal' day-to-day life. As the world transitions to recovering from COVID-19, those developing that recovery need support in adjusting and improving their policies and measures. The situation seems dire, the stakes are high. Literature about the transition between the response and recovery phase in relation to pandemics is scarce. Further complication is that the pandemic will not allow countries to simply transition to the full-scale recovery, instead, a rebound from recovery to response phase is expected for a certain period until the immunization is in place. Pandemics indeed force us to think beyond typical emergency management structures; the cycles of the disaster risk management in the case of biological and other natural hazards are not exactly the same and no one-size-fits-all approach may be used. Still, some parallels may be drawn with the efforts to combat natural hazards and some lessons may be used from previous and the current pandemic. Based on these experiences and reflections, this paper provides a set of policy directions to be considered during the transition towards, as well as throughout, this transition phase. It is suggested that meeting this global, multi-dimensional, and complex challenge will require considerable international collaboration (even convention) and macro-scale changes to global and national policies. The recovery issues are mainly going to be dominated by politics, economics and social science. Necessary for an effective recovery, the pandemic response needs to be a holistic response, combined with an improved data ecosystem between the public health system and the community. We should also view this outbreak and our response to it as an opportunity to learn lessons and reaffirm our universal commitment to sustainable development and enhancing wellbeing around the world.

Multi-hazard disaster studies: monitoring, detection, recovery, and management, based on emerging technologies and optimal techniques

Abstract: Every year man-made and natural disasters impact the lives of millions of people. The frequency of occurrence of such disasters is steadily increasing since the last 50 years, and this has resulted in considerable loss of life, destruction of infrastructure, and social and economic disruption. A focussed and comprehensive solution is needed encompassing all aspects, including early detection of disaster scenarios, prevention, recovery, and management to minimize the losses. This survey paper presents a critical analysis of the existing methods and technologies that are relevant to a disaster scenario, such as WSN, remote sensing technique, artificial intelligence, IoT, UAV, and satellite imagery, to encounter the issues associated with disaster monitoring, detection, and management. In case of emergency conditions arising out of a typical disaster scenario, there is a strong likelihood that the communication networks will be partially disrupted; thus the alternate networks can play a vital role in disaster detection and management. It focuses on the role of the alternate networks and the associated technologies in maintaining connectivity in various disaster scenarios. It presents a comprehensive study on multiple disasters such as landslide, forest fire, and an earthquake based on the latest technologies to monitor, detect, and manage the various disasters. It focuses on several parameters that are necessary for disaster detection and monitoring and offers appropriate solutions. It also touches upon big data analytics for disaster management. Several techniques are explored, along with their merits and demerits. Open challenges are highlighted, and possible future directions are given.

Spatial and temporal distribution of infectious disease epidemics, disasters and other potential public health emergencies in the World Health Organisation Africa region, 2016-2018.

Abstract: Emerging and re-emerging diseases with pandemic potential continue to challenge fragile health systems in Africa, creating enormous human and economic toll. To provide evidence for the investment case for public health emergency preparedness, we analysed the spatial and temporal distribution of epidemics, disasters and other potential public health emergencies in the WHO African region between 2016 and 2018. We abstracted data from several sources, including: the WHO African Region’s weekly bulletins on epidemics and emergencies, the WHO-Disease Outbreak News (DON) and the Emergency Events Database (EM-DAT) of the Centre for Research on the Epidemiology of Disasters (CRED). Other sources were: the Program for Monitoring Emerging Diseases (ProMED) and the Global Infectious Disease and Epidemiology Network (GIDEON). We included information on the time and location of the event, the number of cases and deaths and counter-checked the different data sources. We used bubble plots for temporal analysis and generated graphs and maps showing the frequency and distribution of each event. Based on the frequency of events, we categorised countries into three: Tier 1, 10 or more events, Tier 2, 5–9 events, and Tier 3, less than 5 or no event. Finally, we compared the event frequencies to a summary International Health Regulations (IHR) index generated from the IHR technical area scores of the 2018 annual reports. Over 260 events were identified between 2016 and 2018. Forty-one countries (87%) had at least one epidemic between 2016 and 2018, and 21 of them (45%) had at least one epidemic annually. Twenty-two countries (47%) had disasters/humanitarian crises. Seven countries (the epicentres) experienced over 10 events and all of them had limited or developing IHR capacities. The top five causes of epidemics were: Cholera, Measles, Viral Haemorrhagic Diseases, Malaria and Meningitis. The frequent and widespread occurrence of epidemics and disasters in Africa is a clarion call for investing in preparedness. While strengthening preparedness should be guided by global frameworks, it is the responsibility of each government to finance country specific needs. We call upon all African countries to establish governance and predictable financing mechanisms for IHR implementation and to build resilient health systems everywhere.

Big Data and Its Applications in Smart Real Estate and the Disaster Management Life Cycle: A Systematic Analysis

Abstract: Big data is the concept of enormous amounts of data being generated daily in different fields due to the increased use of technology and internet sources. Despite the various advancements and the hopes of better understanding, big data management and analysis remain a challenge, calling for more rigorous and detailed research, as well as the identifications of methods and ways in which big data could be tackled and put to good use. The existing research lacks in discussing and evaluating the pertinent tools and technologies to analyze big data in an efficient manner which calls for a comprehensive and holistic analysis of the published articles to summarize the concept of big data and see field-specific applications. To address this gap and keep a recent focus, research articles published in last decade, belonging to top-tier and high-impact journals, were retrieved using the search engines of Google Scholar, Scopus, and Web of Science that were narrowed down to a set of 139 relevant research articles. Different analyses were conducted on the retrieved papers including bibliometric analysis, keywords analysis, big data search trends, and authors’ names, countries, and affiliated institutes contributing the most to the field of big data. The comparative analyses show that, conceptually, big data lies at the intersection of the storage, statistics, technology, and research fields and emerged as an amalgam of these four fields with interlinked aspects such as data hosting and computing, data management, data refining, data patterns, and machine learning. The results further show that major characteristics of big data can be summarized using the seven Vs, which include variety, volume, variability, value, visualization, veracity, and velocity. Furthermore, the existing methods for big data analysis, their shortcomings, and the possible directions were also explored that could be taken for harnessing technology to ensure data analysis tools could be upgraded to be fast and efficient. The major challenges in handling big data include efficient storage, retrieval, analysis, and visualization of the large heterogeneous data, which can be tackled through authentication such as Kerberos and encrypted files, logging of attacks, secure communication through Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) and Transport Layer Security (TLS), data imputation, building learning models, dividing computations into sub-tasks, checkpoint applications for recursive tasks, and using Solid State Drives (SDD) and Phase Change Material (PCM) for storage. In terms of frameworks for big data management, two frameworks exist including Hadoop and Apache Spark, which must be used simultaneously to capture the holistic essence of the data and make the analyses meaningful, swift, and speedy. Further field-specific applications of big data in two promising and integrated fields, i.e., smart real estate and disaster management, were investigated, and a framework for field-specific applications, as well as a merger of the two areas through big data, was highlighted. The proposed frameworks show that big data can tackle the ever-present issues of customer regrets related to poor quality of information or lack of information in smart real estate to increase the customer satisfaction using an intermediate organization that can process and keep a check on the data being provided to the customers by the sellers and real estate managers. Similarly, for disaster and its risk management, data from social media, drones, multimedia, and search engines can be used to tackle natural disasters such as floods, bushfires, and earthquakes, as well as plan emergency responses. In addition, a merger framework for smart real estate and disaster risk management show that big data generated from the smart real estate in the form of occupant data, facilities management, and building integration and maintenance can be shared with the disaster risk management and emergency response teams to help prevent, prepare, respond to, or recover from the disasters.

Descriptive and visual summaries of disaster events using artificial intelligence techniques: case studies of Hurricanes Harvey, Irma, and Maria

Abstract: People increasingly use microblogging platforms such as Twitter during natural disasters and emergencies. Research studies have revealed the usefulness of the data available on Twitter for several ...

Managing disasters amid COVID-19 pandemic: Approaches of response to flood disasters

Abstract: The world faces difficulties managing disasters while making efforts to slowing the spread of COVID-19. The paper aims at proposing policies and approaches to manage dual disasters of flooding and COVID-19. It reviews on-going efforts of organizations in the humanitarian assistance, water and sanitation, disaster management and health sectors. Based on review works the policy was recommended. The objective of the policy is to protect human life, in particular, vulnerable groups, from the human security perspective. Local organizations and communities play an important role in disaster management, and risk information supported by scientific knowledge is essential. As the experience of disaster management shows, various organizations including health and water should be coordinated to conduct measures.

Exploring the COVID-19 pandemic as a catalyst for stimulating future research agendas for managing crises and disasters at international sport events

Abstract: While the interdisciplinary study of crisis, disaster, and emergency management has become increasingly sophisticated, the identification of synergies, useful concepts, and future research agendas in relation to studies within the domain of sport event management to inform these areas, is still at a very early stage of development The far-reaching global impact of the COVID-19 pandemic further illustrates the timely importance of this research agenda for both sports events and broader studies in festivals and events The purpose of this article is to critically scope the resilience landscape to help further understand how studies on both international sports events (ISEs) specifically, and both sport and event management studies more generally, could be better informed by disaster management and resilience studies The article highlights eight key thematic areas that merits further investigation and combines to identify a multidisciplinary research agenda and framework for advancing knowledge on managing crises and disasters in both sport and event management studies

Smart Cities with Digital Twin Systems for Disaster Management

Abstract: Exploiting smart cities with digital twins (SCDT) requires the integration of sensing and simulation across diverse infrastructure systems into community management. Community disaster mana...

Temporal and spatial evolution of online public sentiment on emergencies.

Abstract: The transmission of online emergency information has become an active means of expressing public opinion and has vitally affected societal emergency response techniques. This paper analyzes interactions between three groups in time and space using a classic SIR (susceptible, infected, and recovered) epidemic model. Through social network theory and analog simulation analysis, we utilize data from China's Sina Weibo (a popular social media platform) to conduct empirical research on 101 major incidents in China that occurred between 2010 and 2017. We divide these emergencies into four types-natural disasters, accidents, public health events, and social security events-and conduct a simulation using three examples from each group. The results show that government control of public opinion is both cheaper and more effective when it occurs at the initial stages of an incident. By cooperating with the government, the media can facilitate emergency management. Finally, if netizens trust the government and the media, they are more likely to make cooperative decisions, maintain interest, and improve the management of online public sentiment.

COVID-19 in Ethiopia: Assessment of How the Ethiopian Government has Executed Administrative Actions and Managed Risk Communications and Community Engagement.

Abstract: Introduction: Highly communicable nature of the pandemic attributed the COVID-19 response in Ethiopia harsher and dangerous. It has been causing a huge fatality and death toll reported. Besides, a very swift transmission of viruses distributed within 213 countries, including Ethiopia. Therefore, this empirical study investigates all government and stakeholders' effects in line with identifying the current status found in Ethiopia. Methods: Qualitative approach of data collections and thematic analysis were used. Results: The outcomes indicate that COVID-19 situations gain the highest momentum by increasing alarmingly. It shows significant differences after two months since March 2020 it has reported the first case in Ethiopia. The government took several measures ranging from public health emergency response to the state of emergency. The communication strategy and state of emergency are in place to reduce the prospective risks of COVID-19. The strategy segmented the population by tailoring activities of risk communication and community engagement at all levels. The government has strongly obtained various measures like lockdown and a state of emergency. However, it was not strict and has not been heavy-handed that much. Conclusion: KAP's practices are inadequate to fight and minimize the impacts of the pandemic. Such negligence among the public and related factors undermined the preparedness and responses towards COVID-19 in Ethiopia. New cases and deaths are non-stoppable. The government is using several strategies and need to strengthen those efforts to mobilize and upbeat the KAP's of the public through different communication forms to reinforce the existing efforts and alleviate socio-cultural, political, economic factors to drive out COVID-19 among the people. The efforts are building and strengthening up to the standard level of KAP's while enhancing and promoting existing strategies and the drawing of new documents by focusing on high-risk parts of the population.

Managing and responding to pandemics in higher educational institutions: initial learning from COVID-19

Abstract: The purpose of this paper is to understand the key challenges, approaches and lessons of the higher educational institutions (HEIs) in the context of COVID-19.,A survey was conducted to understand the key challenges being faced by the HEIs around the world during the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. A total of 150 responses were collected from 65 universities, located in 29 countries.,The results show that 47% of respondents with defined universities believe their institutions lacked a permanent or dedicated emergency management office, and 41% said their HEIs lacked a general business continuity plan for an emergency. In universities with BCPs, 33% of the plans do not cover biological hazards and pandemic risk management, and 60% of the plans did not include conducting any advanced simulation exercises. More than 70% the responded said their instruction, information sharing and decision-making process were timely and open. The major challenges identified were a lack of adequate preparedness for pandemic and of pandemic-specific advanced simulation exercises. The next major challenges were the change in the mode of teaching to online lectures and working from home. Based on these challenges, a set of short- and long-term recommendations were proposed.,This was the first survey in academic institutions in post COVID-19 context. The findings will be useful for preparing for biological and other related hazards.