Recovery, Renewal, Resilience

This includes integrating qualitative and holistic decision-making strategies and techniques. Key areas to consider:

• Be vision-oriented. Construct an agreed picture of the new system after recovery and align response and recovery decisions to achieve this vision. Consider the consequences of short-term decisions on achieving the vision
• Identify the theme/criteria that can help to achieve the vision and create manageable work packages and sub-packages
• Engage communities in the decision-making process. Utilise communities are sources of information and knowledge
• Consider intuition as a source of information and innovation. Harness expert and local knowledge to generate diverse action scenarios
• Agree on relevant ethical values. Identify and include the ethical values in the decision evaluation process to ensure coherence and feasibility
• Mitigate bias. Engage a wide range of stakeholders in the decision-making process and encourage in-depth discussion

TMB Issue 10 brings together the reflections of our learning from the first 10 weeks of gathering lessons on recovery and renewal from COVID-19. Follow the source link below to read all of the reflections from our team (p.9-15).

Local government will address five tracks of major activities running simultaneously and demanding resources:

• Track 1: Response - provide crisis response functions to first, and subsequent, waves of COVID-19 and to other emergencies. Also, the effect of COVID-19 on response e.g. social distancing on evacuation/sheltering and event management
• Track 2: Recovery - develop plans to reinstate operations, learn from response, and prepare for the next emergency
• Track 3: Renewal - hold a Renewal Summit to align strategic leaders on transformational opportunities of COVID-19 and link to positive initiatives (not the negativity of COVID-19)
• Track 4: Brexit - review plans for no-deal exit (Operation Yellowhammer), and for an orderly exit - considering implications for local authorities
• Track 5: Recession - monitor implications of recession on operations/finances of local government, organisations in local area, employment, household finances, etc

The five tracks will individually and in combination put pressure on local government

TMB Issue 10 brings together the reflections of our learning ffrom the first 10 weeks of gathering lessons on recovery and renewal from COVID-19. Follow the source link below to read all of the reflections from our team (p.9-15).

Consider:

• Ensuring equality of access to internet through roll out of fibre-optic cables for internet - evenly distributed throughout areas
• Supporting housing by restricting use of new housing for 'land banking' where property is bought as investment rather than as primary residence

Such issues include loneliness and anxiety about returning to the outside world and recovering from the physical impacts of the disease. Consider:

• Maintain coordinating arrangements with the charity and non-profit sector to support those suffering with physical and mental health impacts of COVID-19
• Share information about vulnerable populations with non-profit and the charity sector where they have permission so that they are able to offer appropriate support
• Retain communication channels such as hotlines to facilitate community engagement
• The needs of those who have survived COVID-19, thinking of the mental health impacts such as fear of going outside, and physical impacts such as organ scarring, impaired vision and mobility, which may require ongoing support

This lesson was contributed by a representative of the Social Welfare Department in Portugal and UNDRR City Resilience Stories Australia during project data collection.

This briefing builds on The Manchester Briefing (TMB) 8 to discuss more about the effects and impacts of, and opportunities arising from, COVID-19; what these mean for developing recovery strategies and for Local Resilience Forums (LRFs) which plan the response to crisis.

Follow the source link below to TMB Issue 9 to read this briefing in full (p.2-10).

Colombia is expecting El Nino, a climate cycle that will result in drought. Local government has brought together a climate change committee with academics and experts to inform local action on the impacts of water shortages and power loss during COVID-19. Consider:

• Running tabletop exercises that model water shortages and energy loss alongside the pandemic and its impacts on hospitals, cleaning infrastructure and public health
• Scenario planning that considers different states of lockdown and the impacts of COVID-19 and a climate emergency
• Scenario planning that considers the socio-economic impacts of COVID-19 and a climate emergency
• Public campaigns on conservation of water and energy, and how to manage these during a climate emergency

This lesson was contributed by a Chief Resilience Officer in Colombia during project data collection.

The youth may have vulnerabilities that include:

• Safeguarding concerns e.g. those with special educational needs, carers
• Exposed to domestic abuse, financial pressures and poverty, and additional caring responsibilities
• Limited access to computers for studies
• No internet access or costly data packages
• Reliance on public hotspots (currently unavailable)

Consider:

• Free, publicly available internet as part of corporate, and social responsibility providers
• Strategic investments that promote the safety of youth and information to counteract 'fake news'
• Wellbeing and safety of youth via specialised youth work during/post COVID-19 for those at risk of domestic abuse or exploitation (gangs, sexual)
• Creatively engage with youth through established organisations (schools, Youth Parliament and Young Peoples Foundations, community, faith-based organisations)
• Review of additional risks and legalities from COVID-19 legislation, in particular those 'at risk' of offending due to lack of understanding and communication aimed at youth
• Youth engagement in future recovery and renewal plans to co-develop preventative plans to support meaningful transitions to education, employment and training

In France, The National Bar Council created a voluntary telephone service to help and assist individuals and companies with legal issues related to the impacts of COVID-19. Legal advice covered family law such as parental access to see a child under lockdown, and labour law including defaulting on business loans, and access to government assistance.

Spontaneous supply chains (SSC) emerge during a crisis to meet unmet demand. They may fill a gap locally or nationally i.e. transformation in manufacturing and production. In the USA, Amish communities have shifted their production from woodwork and carpentry organised by men, to the production of facemasks by women. Women were sewing up to 50,000 face masks per day that met hospital sanctioned quality control. Consider:

• How SSC can be integrated into formal supply chains to ensure quality and efficiency
• How SSC can be integrated into local government efforts. Many SSCs are locally driven and so integration into existing local supply chains would increase their efficiency and effectiveness
• How to build firm-frim relations to support SSC integration e.g. building trust, developing contracts, designing management systems
• Opportunities for staying connected to local communities that have capacity to support

In Argentina, there has been a sharp rise in cybercrime directed at the elderly. Consider:

• Restructuring sections of the police force to incorporate more officers to reinforce cybercrime investigations
• Preventive and participatory approaches to reducing crime through participatory security mapping. This combines crime data, geography and local knowledge to help protect people vulnerable to this type of crime
• Recruit retired police officers to help cope with the demands of COVID-19 - this has a positive impact on officers' mental health

This lesson was contributed by an expert within the Ministry of Government and Security in Argentina during project data collection.

PPE shortages, lack of testing, and a vulnerable population have seen care homes in England and Wales become hotspots of the COVID-19 epidemic[1]. The impacts of COVID-19 have been hugely disruptive in the care home sector; affecting patients and all aspects of care. The context of these challenges has been attributed to:

• A decline in funding for social care in the past 10 years, even as demand for care has risen as a result of an ageing population[2]
• Daily ~1.5 million older people – one in seven over-65s – go without the help they need with tasks such as washing, dressing and eating2
• Deaths in care homes (from all causes and Covid-19) are increasing - the increased community deaths reflects the prioritisation of social care[3]
• Moving such populations out of hospitals during Covid-19 means systems pressures are pushed elsewhere including into the community:
  • people were reportedly discharged from hospital to care homes without testing for Covid-19[4]
  • people who became ill in care homes were largely not tested for the virus and most were not admitted to hospital[5]

The UK Government has stated that their number one priority for adult social care is infection control during the COVID-19 pandemic[6]. While mitigating the spread of the disease is of paramount importance, protective measures such as isolation are associated with a morbidity of its own[7]. The lack of supervision as a result of staff shortages put care home residents at increased risk of injury and mental health issues, for example those with dementia often stop eating as a result of depression which can hasten death7.

Before the UK Government released their Plan to Rebuild[8] which includes a section on protecting care homes, a number of actions were identified within the sector to address growing concerns over how COVID-19 was being managed in care homes.

Actions to address the situation for care homes include:

• Central/local government and the care home sector should work together to make testing in care homes happen[9].
• More PPE, testing and funding to:
  • Ensure care home residents are safeguarded
  • Prevent avoidable hospital admissions
  • Improve the mental health of families who may be worried that their relatives in care do not have the support they need[10]
• More guidance for care home managers on:
  • Receiving residents from hospitals when they have not been tested
  • Permitting relatives to say goodbye to loved ones
  • Preventing staff making a dozen home visits a day - potentially spreading virus
  • Facilitating staff speaking out about unsafe conditions (five carers reportedly lost their jobs in the past fortnight after speaking out about their concerns)[11]
• In Scotland, the Care Inspectorate (the sector’s regulator) would examine every care home’s conduct during the pandemic12
• Social care should be viewed as part of healthcare and vice versa
• Nurses are working continually on helplines to support families affected[12]
• Consider relatives’ visitation/entry permissions to nursing homes as lockdowns ease[13]:
  • Limit the number of visitations per week and permit only one family member to visit at a time
  • Prevent children and young people (under 14) from visiting
  • Require visitors to reserve a time-slot– and not allow visitors unless they have made a reservation
  • Space visitors throughout the day and across the week to preserve social distancing
  • Prevent entry to visitors if they are ill, under quarantine or in isolation, or if they are waiting for the results of COVID-testing
  • Escort each visitor to use hand sanitizer on entering the care home and on departure
  • Escort each visitor to the resident’s room and back without stopping in the common areas
  • Visitors must adhere to the 2-meter distance regulations, and avoid direct contact with other care home residents
  • Urge visitors to download the COVID tracing app to their smartphone
  • Adapt this advice to circumstances of each care home (e.g. the size of the home, the situation at any given time, the number of confirmed infections in the local community)

The call to address these actions has been met by £3.2bn of additional funding for local authorities from the UK Government, which can be used to meet rising care home and additional pressures on social care. Additionally, a further £1.3bn has been provided for the NHS and local authorities to work together to fund the additional needs of people leaving hospital during the pandemic. The Governments priority areas are[14]:

1. Testing;
2. Infection prevention and control;
3. Workforce expansion through a recruitment campaign;
4. Clinical support through accelerated introduction of enhanced health support in care homes from GPs and community health services;
5. Guidance.
   

References:

[1] https://www.thelancet.com/journals/lancet/article/PIIS0140-6736(20)31199-5/fulltext

[2] https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2020/may/03/the-observer-view-on-care-home-deaths-being-an-indictment-of-our-society

[3] https://blogs.lse.ac.uk/politicsandpolicy/covid19-deaths-social-care/

[4] https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2020/may/03/the-observer-view-on-care-home-deaths-being-an-indictment-of-our-society

[5] https://blogs.lse.ac.uk/politicsandpolicy/covid19-deaths-social-care/

[6] https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/our-plan-to-rebuild-the-uk-governments-covid-19-recovery-strategy/our-plan-to-rebuild-the-uk-governments-covid-19-recovery-strategy#our-roadmap-to-lift-restrictions-step-by-step

[7] https://www.thelancet.com/journals/lancet/article/PIIS0140-6736(20)31199-5/fulltext

[8] https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/our-plan-to-rebuild-the-uk-governments-covid-19-recovery-strategy/our-plan-to-rebuild-the-uk-governments-covid-19-recovery-strategy#our-roadmap-to-lift-restrictions-step-by-step

[9] Age UK. https://www.ageuk.org.uk/latest-press/articles/2020/04/age-uk-response-to-more-care-home-deaths/

[10] Dementia UK https://www.dementiauk.org/coronavirus-care-home-deaths-up-hospital-cases-fall-our-response/

[11] https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2020/may/03/the-observer-view-on-care-home-deaths-being-an-indictment-of-our-society

[12] Dementia UK https://www.dementiauk.org/coronavirus-care-home-deaths-up-hospital-cases-fall-our-response/

[13] National Commissioner of the Icelandic Police, Status Report on 24-4-20

[14] https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/our-plan-to-rebuild-the-uk-governments-covid-19-recovery-strategy/our-plan-to-rebuild-the-uk-governments-covid-19-recovery-strategy#our-roadmap-to-lift-restrictions-step-by-step

Consider opportunities to:

• Ensure public health measures (testing, contact tracing, etc.) are underpinned by action guaranteeing livelihoods and food security
• Facilitate collaboration between local governments, utility providers, and community groups to ensure affordable access to water and sanitation for all
• Raise awareness and behaviour change in informal settlements and slums through participation and community ownership of initiative
• Advocate for measures to reduce the burden of rent and mortgages, provide temporary shelter for the homeless, and repurpose buildings to isolate those infected
• Support local governments to manage safe urban mobility and transport, with a focus on those serving communities in informal settlements, while observing any movement restrictions

In Colombia, a programme to support rural agricultural production and urban restaurants has been developed. With the support of local government, produce that is normally sold at farmers markets is now being sold to restaurants. Restaurants have transformed into mini food markets within their local neighbourhoods. This has helped to meet local food demands, provided a market for local produce and maintained community cohesion.

This lesson was offered by a Chief Resilience Officer in Colombia during project data collection.

Consider:

• Enhance Small - Medium Enterprise loans and provide businesses with continuous access to credit during these hard times
• Require that banks and finance companies which apply for low-cost government funding to pass on the savings to their borrowers
• Improve digital innovation to support and enable SMEs to access global markets via business to business (B2B) or business to consumer (B2C) digital channels, and to participate in B2B marketplaces so as to benefit from overseas procurement demand

Telecom data cover large populations and uses pre-existing technology that can be used to understand mobility patterns and human behaviour in near-real-time. Indicators from telecom data can inform provide information about:

• The number of people visiting hotspots
• Where those visiting hotspots came from
• Where they went afterwards
• How restrictions have impacted populations' movements
• How many people are away home and for how long

This can provide localised information on track and trace, and may be particularly useful for countries with less well developed infrastructure and access to smart technology.

Annex A of this week's 'Briefing A' contains a menu of impact themes and impact areas that could be used to help local government plan an impact assessment (p.7-10). Follow the source link below to view this briefing.

Degraded habitats can encourage faster evolutionary processes and disease diversification, because pathogens spread more easily. Consider:

• The risk of developing into habitats into largely undisturbed places where viruses are transmitted more easily
• Conservation of natural barriers between virus host animals-in which the virus is naturally circulating-and people
• Controlling markets that sell live animals where possible. In countries that rely on markets due to older infrastructure (e.g. no refrigeration), focus on the provision of health care and education on the safety of eating certain species
• Develop ties with local communities to address behaviours around conservation, disease and wild animal consumption
• Communicate the risks of pathogens and disease to hunters, loggers, market traders and consumers

In China, all major stores have provided discount vouchers to consumers that are readily available on a commonly used App. QR discount codes are also readily on display in many shop windows so customers can scan the code and receive a discount in store. The government is encouraging stores to offer large discounts to consumers.

This lesson was contributed by an International Engagement Officer based on China during project data collection.

Consider:

• Government schemes which pay young workers for employment in green industries to tackle unemployment
• Retraining older people in green industries to "leave no worker behind" in any transition towards a different economy
• Adaptation of plans for green industry by region. Some regions may be more adversely affected by job loss, for example, in areas that relied on tourism and hospitality so retrain these workers

The Mental Health Commission of Canada has developed three programmes: Caring for Yourself/Caring for your Team, and Caring for Others:

• Caring for Yourself/Caring for your Team - Participants learn how to better understand their own mental wellness, and that of their team. They learn to notice if they might be moving into unwell areas, use practical actions to help with stress, and know when to reach out to get professional help, and learn tips to support team members
• Caring for Others - Participants focus on how to create a safe space to have conversations about mental health and/or substance use problems, and the skills required to respond to a mental health crisis until professional help arrives. This prepares participants to have conversations confidently about mental health during a crisis, with their family, friends, communities, and in their workplaces

In Korea the following processes have been put in place for civil servants and these lessons could be expanded to other organisations:

Expand systems and optimizing resource

• Expanding the number of VPN licenses from 24,000 to 40,000, an increase of 16,000
• Optimizing load distribution methods to manage web server traffic
• Increasing the maximum network capacity (national information telecom networks and VPN broadband from 1G to 4G)

Support VPN use among employees working from home

• Distributing signup guidelines, user manuals, and FAQs
• Training for using VPN via video conference for workers, especially those in government institutions to improve security of sensitive information
• Workers who work from home have call centres available from 9 am to 6 pm (including at the weekend)

Monitor the daily system

• Monitoring trends in number of subscribers, usage traffic, simultaneous log-ins, and networks e.g. Personal Area Network (PAN), Local Area Network (LAN), Wireless Local Area Network (WLAN) etc
• Monitoring heavy traffic hours with the highest number of people logged onto the internet simultaneously (between 8 am and 10 am)
• Focused monitoring every 10 minutes

Korea held an election during the COVID-19 pandemic. The government ensured a number of voting rights for:

• Confirmed COVID-19 patients
• Those who were subject to movement restrictions and became infected with the virus after the registration period expired
• Those who came into contact with self-quarantined persons and were also quarantined
• Overseas arrivals who were subject to movement restrictions up until Election Day on April 15 2020

Officials' actions included:

• Texting eligible voters in self-quarantine before the vote - about 13,000 affirmed they wanted to participate
• Marking a metre of social distancing space to ballot booths from nearby streets
• Giving permission to those without fever or respiratory symptoms to leave their homes so they could cast their ballots after 6pm, when polling stations closed for other voters
• Escorting voters and monitoring COVID-19 positive voters through tracking apps
• Providing masks to poll workers
• Checking temperatures of voters on arrival and moving anyone with a fever or not wearing a mask to separate areas to vote
• Sanitising the facilities after voters
• Providing voters who pass the fever screening with sanitising gel and disposable plastic gloves before entering a voting booth
• Encouraging voting via mail for hospital patients or those who were under two-week quarantine
• Organising an early voting period for those who were mildly ill - 400 people cast their votes at temporary booths

This briefing outlines the key issues that should be considered by all partners in the initial stages of planning recovery and renewal, those which should be addressed prior to commissioning Impact Assessments. The briefing concludes by highlighting the need for RCGs to align with other local strategic partnerships to enable recovery and renewal, taking into consideration the breadth of effects, impacts and opportunities from COVID-19.

Follow the source link below to read this briefing in full (p.2-7)

There are lessons to learn from the 'stay at home' policies in relation to inequalities and vulnerabilities. Safe and adequate housing is a central facet of a population's wellbeing and health. Housing for recovery and renewal would benefit from framing as pivotal 'infrastructures of care' for surviving in the present and for reimaging the future. Consider how to create:

• Better living conditions for migrants and people in temporary housing as they are particularly vulnerable. Those living in temporary dwellings have often experienced conflict, disaster and economic hardship
• Comfortable housing at a time when staying at home is pivotal. Ensure additional support is provided to those renting and the homeless to mitigate evictions, overcrowding, unaffordability, and substandard conditions
• Improved urban resilience and physical and mental health through housing. In most cities, mental and physical illness and premature death are disproportionally concentrated in poor communities and ethnic minorities
• More energy efficient low-carbon, innovative and sustainable housing
• More equal financial mechanisms and markets for land and housing that recognises the interdependencies between housing production, land, infrastructure and labour markets
• Avoidances of potential pitfalls of rapid urbanisation which can exacerbate inequalities, segregation, resource depletion, ecological crisis, displacement and migration

In the USA, The Emergency Services research team at NBC Universal developed a Disaster Response Team "Train-At-Home" game. The game is based on Community Emergency Response Team (CERT) training, though you don't need to be CERT-trained to play. The game is designed to be fun, and for everyone. The game board and cards can be downloaded and printed at home. The aim is to provide tips and reminders to people about disaster response. The cards also hold references to sites where more information can be found.

Disaster management games for younger audiences can also be found here:

https://www.ready.gov/kids/games/data/dm-english/index.html

This lesson was contributed by a Disaster Program Specialist in the USA during project data collection.

A guide by UNDRR and partners sets out 10 core steps of business resilience to COVID-19 that is particularly relevant for small businesses. These include:

• Stay informed. Identify at least one workplace team member to be a Focal Point for COVID19. The focal point can help coordinate readiness activities, distribute information, answer questions and to coordinate staff roles and responsibilities during an outbreak
• Identify core products and services which are essential to the survival of your business. Be prepared to change your business practices if needed to maintain delivering your essential services or products
• Communicate plans with employees and customers
• Establish policies for physical distancing, hand sanitizing, and safe working at work
• Protect employee health. Provide public health materials on COVID-19, regularly clean surfaces that are often touched, and train your staff on what your COVID-19 response plans are once you have completed them. Also maintain the privacy of employees with confirmed or suspected COVID-19 infection and inform employees that some may be at higher risk for severe illness
• Plan how to operate with absent employees
• Prepare your supply chain. Identify and talk to your critical suppliers, identify alternate supply chains, understand your position in the supply chain
• Plan to modify service delivery to customers
• Apply for crisis assistance from government and business associations
• Exercise your COVID-19 plan. Consider using existing standards to do this, such as ISO 22301 business continuity management

A number of track and trace mechanisms to support treatment have been credited with supporting the response in Korea[1]. These include: Self-diagnosis Apps for in-bound travellers; the self-quarantine Safety APP; contact tracing and epidemiological investigations.

Self-diagnosis Apps for in-bound travellers

This self-diagnosis mobile application has been available to in-bound travellers at airports and harbours. The apps:

• Have been developed by the government to monitor symptoms of inbound travellers and provide them with prompt medical advice.
• Are downloaded onto a mobile device and:
  • Is required at entry by all inbound travellers since 1st April 2020.
  • Is available through the URL and QR codes available around the airport or harbour immigration gates and on special arrival cards.
• Require the in-bound traveller to:
  • Install the app and use it to submit passport information, nationality, name, address and other necessary information for quarantine.
  • Connect directly to a call centre and social media channels and provides medical answers against suspected symptoms to enable early treatment.
  • Report their health condition (body temperature, cough, sore throat, or difficulty breathing) through the application once a day during their 14 days of quarantine.
  • Seek medical advice if they are showing symptoms. This can be done through call centres operated by the Korea Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (KCDC), or at COVID-19 screening centres.
• Collect data entered by the user during the self-diagnosis which:
  • Is checked against immigration data before being sent to the public health clinics under jurisdiction of local governments.
  • Is transferred to local governments so that the corresponding public health clinics can provide medical advice, testing and instructions on how to receive care. This is done for travellers reporting symptoms for more than 2 days.

Self-quarantine Safety APP

This is a voluntary application for residents of Korea. The app:

• Has three functions to:
  • Conduct a self-diagnosis for the users to conduct and submit the results with the assigned government officers
  • Provide necessary information including self-quarantine guidelines and the contact info of the assigned government case officers.
  • Ensure that self-quarantine orders are kept by setting off a GPS-based location tracking alarm whenever a user ventures out from the designated quarantine area - to prevent possible violation of orders. A case officer is also notified when quarantine is disobeyed; the case officer takes appropriate measures to have the subject return to the quarantine area.
• Has two types of application available:
  • One for the users under self-quarantine – they use the application twice a day to monitor themselves for four symptoms: fever, cough, sore throat, and respiratory difficulties.
  • One for the assigned government case officers – once submitted, the self-diagnostic data will automatically be shared with an assigned case officer, who will be notified if the user does not submit the self-diagnostic data or becomes symptomatic.
• Has been effective in monitoring those under self-quarantine and making sure that they stay in designated locations. The alarm function of the application has demonstrated to encourage the quarantined to follow regulations.

Contact tracing and epidemiological investigations

The COVID-19 Data Platform supports investigators as they trace infected people. The app:

• Is designed to:
  • Support epidemiological surveyors to quickly identify the transmission routes and places that the infected person has visited
  • Use real-time analysis of data through location tracking, card transactions, and CCTV recordings for accurate tracing of routes and places
• Takes users through a process of using the app as:
  • Citizens voluntarily record their whereabouts on their smartphones using Google Timeline
  • Using a ‘My Timeline’ function on Google Map application, the user whereabouts and routes are recorded automatically.
  • Data on Google Timeline can be captured as screenshots and shared with epidemiological investigators, who will use the data to trace contacts and patient routes.
• Supports health officials in:
  • Confirming the interview results of patient transmission routes with data on the system.
  • Allowing big data analysis from real-time data feeds on COVID-19 patients, including their whereabouts and the time spent on each location.
  • Using these multiple data points, so that the system can detect incidents of cluster infection and show the source of transmission.
  • Enabling prompt data-driven COVID-19 epidemiological investigations.

Further details on the apps are available[2],[3].

References:

[1] Flattening the curve on COVID-19: How Korea responded to a pandemic using ICT http://www.undp.org/content/seoul_policy_center/en/home/presscenter/articles/2019/flattening-the-curve-on-covid-19.html

[2]http://ncov.mohw.go.kr/upload/ncov/file/202004/1587521842434_20200422111722.pdf

[3]http://ncov.mohw.go.kr/upload/viewer/skin/doc.html?fn=1587107400738_20200417161001.pdf&rs=/upload/viewer/result/202005/

For example, the CovidSafe App in Australia:

• Alarmed and confused users with a message saying they had coronavirus, despite not being tested
• Suffered from hoaxes and phishing scams to retrieve people's personal information. For example, a text to users claiming to be from the government purported a new coronavirus contact-tracing app

In the UK, five tests must be met:

• Protect the healthcare system and its ability to cope so it can continue to provide critical care and specialist treatment
• The daily death rates from coronavirus must come down
• Reliable data must show the rate of infection is decreasing to manageable levels
• Have confident that testing capacity and PPE are being managed, with supply able to meet not just today's demand, but future demand
• Have confidence that any changes made not risk a second peak of infections

Five alert levels are developed to guide the level of lockdown restrictions.

Research in Denmark and China demonstrated that women were more adversely psychologically impacted by COVID-19 than men. In China, survey respondents demonstrated evidence of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) Consider:

• Mental health services that are tailored for different genders to accommodate a safe space to discuss needs
• Ensuring increased access to mental health services through online systems and telephone calls
• Hand hygiene, mask-wearing and confidence in doctors have been observed to reduce psychological impact

LGTBIQ+ people have a number of vulnerabilities. Consider:

• LGBTIQ+ people are less likely to have safe homes and are at a higher risk of homelessness (especially young people) and are at a high risk of domestic abuse
• The impacts of losing safe community spaces and the additional mental health impacts of this
• The complications with access to healthcare which can be especially hard for trans people who have specific medical needs
• The use of test, track and trace facilities for this vulnerable group. In South Korea a new wave of infections have been attributed to 3,000 people attending clubs that accommodated the LGBTIQ+ community. But only half of people in attendance have gone for testing, due to fears that doing so would reveal their sexuality. Confidence in personal safety and confidentiality is paramount in track, trace and treat processes

The reduction of international travel has had positive environmental effects, but has negatively impacted conservation in developing countries. Consider:

• How the effects of eco-tourism collapse and how to support conservation of the worlds' core ecosystems
• How the economic implications of COVID-19 may impact surges in poaching, illegal fishing and deforestation, and how this can be policed
• The dangers to Park Rangers who protect wildlife, and measures to protect staff from violence

Councils maintain crucial services, have set up community hubs, and established local teams for tracing and tracking. Councils provide food and shelter to people at risk, help local businesses stay afloat and have mobilised volunteers and therefore know their communities in depth which can support trace and track. Councils:

• Are naturally placed to respond quickly to the distinct needs, challenges and infection rates of their own area
• Are equipped with their own teams of public health professionals

The Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) advises to:

• Avoid language that blames others or leads to stigmas
• Pay attention to what children see or hear, whether it's online, on television, or media such as newspapers
• Reduce the amount of screen time focused on COVID-19 as too much information can lead to anxiety
• Talk to children about how some internet stories on COVID-19 may be based on inaccurate information
• Help children thoroughly wash their hands for at least 20 seconds
• Teach and remind children to practice healthy habits e.g. coughing or sneezing into a tissue

Shut down and start-up processes at facilities need special attention to prevent accidents. Consider:

• If the shutdown is for a longer or undetermined duration then the operator needs to be aware of safety measures which should be taken
• Some hazardous materials degrade over time. These inventories need to be minimised and their situation monitored
• Nitrogen blanketing to protect against explosive atmospheres should be maintained
• Any loss of electrical power during the period of shut down may affect any systems that need to be maintained in operation (e.g. cooling, ventilation, pumping, stirring)
• Some processes, such as the storage of refrigerated gases, depend on a regular rate of consumption to maintain safe operating pressures. Reduced consumption due to a shutdown must be assessed and appropriate measures taken
• Warehouses that are not opened regularly may heat up due to external temperatures and absorption of solar radiation. This can lead to the release of hazardous materials or the build-up of hazardous atmospheres within the warehouse

In Louisville a city of 800k people in the USA, the Mayor led three activities to promote compassion in dealing with the effect of COVID-19. This has been underpinned by a value-based renewal of the city:

• Respect for each other
• Compassion for everyone to protect people
• Equity so that everyone feels connected to a bright and hopeful future

Three important actions to facilitate this were:

• Donations which generated $10m USD which could be allocated to good causes
• Digital equality for all

The "Lift Up Lou" campaign; a morale building initiative to help the city to focus on working together. 'Lift Up Lou' involved shared online activities that citizens could jointly participate in and a community song produced collaboratively by 30 local, notable musicians

Including:

• Advising citizens to remain prepared for a future lockdown - provide information to citizens about 'preparedness kits' that they may still want to keep available. This kit can include non-perishable foods, hygiene and cleaning products, basic medical supplies, and entertainment items. Consider providing information on items to purchase based on age or gender
• Advising citizens not to panic buy - if advising citizens to develop 'preparedness kits', provide clear information about how many items are reasonable per household, explain why over-stockpiling is not needed and detrimental
• Advising citizens about lockdown procedures - if advising citizens to develop 'preparedness kits', provide clear information to reiterate lockdown procedures such as social distancing, self-isolation, monitoring of systems, access to services during a lockdown

Strategies should broadly include:

• Sending alerts to the public so they know what to do
• Encouraging the public to make a plan to protect and connect with people close to them
• Educating the public about getting to safety with key items they would need
• Educating the public about staying safe at home when they can't leave
• Encouraging the public to help friends and neighbours get ready

In Korea, specific measures were taken to stabilise the supply of face masks in particular. The government developed an emergency joint meeting of relevant ministries and a joint inspection team to conduct daily inspections and to handle reports on unfair sales of masks.

• The Ministry of Economy and Finance set up its own taskforce, independent of the joint government inspection team, to inspect the mask supply chain
• The Ministry of Economy and Finance formed a 64-person taskforce within a day. They visited: manufacturing companies to listen to their difficulties; stores authorized to sell masks; factories, and the distribution hubs to inspect the situation on production and distribution, and difficulties in the supply and demand of raw materials
• The taskforce inspected 751 sites from February 28 to March 9, and allowed the onsite inputs to be appropriately reflected in policies which ultimately stabilised supply

This could include:

• Retrofitting programmes to make buildings more energy-efficient
• Mass tree planting
• Investment in solar and wind power
• Building infrastructure required for increased consumption and use of electric cars such as improved electricity networks, and public and personal capacity for charging stations

Additionally, due to lockdown these measures may not be as disruptive to people's daily lives compared to, for example, offices being retrofitted while in constant use.

This lesson was conributed to by Chief Resilience Officers in Italy and Australia during project data collection, along with the source link below.

This may include:

• Reimagining how cities are built and organised e.g. Brussels is creating 40km of new cycle paths; France is providing cyclists with subsidies; UK has announced a œ2bn infrastructure scheme to encourage more walking and cycling
• Accelerating environmentally friendly projects such as increased investment in electric vehicle infrastructure

Also consider the unintended consequences of green infrastructure solutions. In the case of battery production for electric vehicles, consideration should be given to the environmental degradation caused by mining for battery components for electric vehicles, the ethical considerations of using mines in developing countries, the lifecycle of batteries and how they will be recycled in large quantities.

Consider:

• Women are more likely to carry out unpaid work or serve as care givers. The pandemic is likely to negatively impact their livelihoods and dramatically increase their unpaid care work
• Women constitute over two-thirds of workers in the health and social sector globally, placing them on the frontlines of the pandemic response, but with a persistent gender pay gap and fewer leadership positions than their male counterparts
• These issues can restrict access to resources, decision making and the ability to take preventive measures

Close consultation is needed with women's organisations i.e. groups for mothers, carers, women's rights, domestic violence

Including:

• Clearly identify authoritative sources
• Encourage social media companies to correct disinformation
• Develop policies on media use of traumatic footage
• Mitigate individuals' risk of misinformation
• Improve health literacy and critical thinking skills
• Minimise sharing of misinformation through fact checking

This briefing focuses on decision-making and the challenges that have emerged through COVID-19, where governments' decision-making approaches have been scrutinised, and we suggest the integration of qualitative approaches for decision-making.

At present, international organisations and analysts are exploring correlations between the response strategies in different countries and the impact of COVID-19. Although such correlations can be informative, in some contexts quantitative approaches to decision making are limited. In some countries the confused responses to COVID-19 may be a manifestation of a systemic weakness, rather than the result of decision-maker error. Since the 1950s, qualitative tools and techniques have been developed to address complexity and uncertainty and these are needed now during such challenging times.

This brief considers the uniqueness of pandemics, the suitability of the existing approach to making decisions, and suggests ways to integrate systems approaches that are more compatible with complexity and high uncertainty.

Follow the source link to read this briefing in full (TMB Issue 7, p.2-6)

While COVID-19 has had positive impacts on pollution levels, the creation of additional plastic waste from PPE and disposable items is going to landfill. Consider:

• Campaigns to remind people and businesses of the disadvantages of single-use plastics, and the benefits of reusable containers i.e. water bottles and carrier bags
• Campaigns to educate and remind people and businesses of the environmental impact of non-recyclable takeaway food packaging
• What can be done to mitigate the environmental impacts of increasing medical waste that is contaminated or not economical to recycle

PPE for recycling plant workers will be required to reduce waste going to landfill and consideration will need to be given to mitigate the impacts of dropping oil prices limited on the economies of recycling.

The World Economic Forum suggests 5 key areas which businesses should focus their recovery:

Reskilling and upskilling deeply human skills as well as digital skills

• It is critical that employers emphasise retraining workers and that governments build upskilling and reskilling into the fiscal stimulus they are injecting into economies

Supporting the jobs of tomorrow

• Employers should focus on professions that care for people, support the planet, manage new technologies and communicate products and services

Prioritizing redeployment and re-employment

• Rapidly redeploy furloughed workers to high-demand roles, such as logistics and care provision
• Provide job market insights, job market intermediation (match-making services), and job-search assistance

Re-evaluating essential work and improving the quality of jobs

• Consider increasing the payment of essential workers and improving their job security

Resetting education, skills and jobs systems for post-pandemic recovery

• Critical collaboration between employers, governments and workers both nationally and globally is essential to reskilling and upskilling individuals - especially those in low paid precarious jobs

The impact of school closures, especially nursery and primary schools, carries high social and economic costs as learning is interrupted, parents are unprepared for home schooling and for the impacts this has on childcare. Working parents may have no choice but to leave children alone when they have to work, or to miss work to take care of their children. This can impact child nutrition, social isolation and increase children's exposure to violence and exploitation. Schools in Denmark, China, Korea and Taiwan, have begun to open. In Korea, the government has incorporated the concept of digital classrooms into current educational legislation to develop a 'future-orientated' approach to online education.

A number of measures for adjusting the school day have been identified:

• Consider staggering the school day so children arrive in different time blocks. In Demark the start and end of the school day is split into three 15-minute windows, and the day finishes at 2pm to reduce risk of new rules feeling oppressive. This helps reduce crowding at the school gates
• Parents are not allowed inside the building and must collect their children at outside while observing social distancing rules- consider marking lines, and creating one-way systems for parents to collect children in playgrounds
• Consider rotating year groups into schools for a week at a time
• Consider changes to lesson delivery e.g. restrict movement of teachers one teacher per class. Consider how this may impact which classes teachers will need to deliver and how this can be effectively timetabled. Also consider making class sizes smaller by splitting classes in two and have taught rotas between staff
• Limit handling of children's books through increased self-marking activities
• Provide allocated desks to each child with social distancing requirements in place. Be pragmatic and realistic about how to ensure social distancing when children are not at their desks, e.g. how they will traverse corridors or stairways, how to manage behaviour at break times
• Consider reducing creative activities such as art, and 'carpet time' for primary school children. Or requesting personal supplies i.e. scissors or paintbrushes are brought in. Consider how creative classes can be taken outdoors to make learning fun, and safer
• Stagger lunch breaks and class times to avoid the risk of too many people moving through the school at one time

Alongside restructuring the school day, re-opening of schools requires attention to infrastructure. This may include:

• Installing additional handwashing facilities so children have to wash hands before entering school and then throughout the day - in Denmark children wash their hands six to eight times a day
• Measure temperatures before students are allowed on site. In China some schools have installed a system at the entrance of the school to record temperatures. Any person displaying a temperature above 37.3 degrees is taken for further temperature checks
• Installing hand sanitisation stations and bins for discarded masks in and around the school site. China also has isolation areas should anyone be taken ill during the course of the day
• Utilising additional buildings such as church halls or community centres if the school does not have the required space to maintain social distancing and its cohort of students
• Accounting for reduced workforce availability due to illness, and PPE requirements

There is an urgency to return pupils to schools to support their health and well-being and to relieve pressures on working families who may be experiencing increased financial hardship as a result of having children at home. It is important that robust scientific evidence is used to make such decisions; a study from Germany found children were as likely to spread coronavirus as adults which suggests caution is required. However, lessons from Denmark, China and Taiwan could provide useful insights into practical adaptation and innovation to support a safe return to school.

To read this case study in its original format with references etc., follow the source link to TMB Issue 7 p.16-17.

Government may consider an industry-led recovery that draws on close partnerships with industry leaders to re-evaluate local, regional and national legislation on business applications to facilitate recovery. This may include making applications for businesses easier, easing legislation and increased legal support for businesses to expedite business renewal.

This lesson was contributed by a Risk Manager in Australia during project data collection.

In Korea, SMEs are being supported through national campaigns. Consumers are encouraged to purchase local products through drive-through stations. This supports local vendors selling their products direct to the consumer, and helps consumers who may be able to purchase items at lower prices due to lower overhead costs.

Corporate buyers are supported by government through virtual meetings to match buyers to supplier SMEs, in consultation with the Korea SMEs and Startups Agency and Korea International Trade Association. The government will hold virtual consultations online for 400 SMEs at least twice a month (total of 10 times), over the period of 4 months (April to July 2020). The government will invite 30-40 buyers from abroad and 30-50 SMEs per session to match corporate buyers to Korean SME providers. The government will also provide consultation and follow up measures.

Including:

• Dissemination of information about resurgence on a transparent website
• Encourage private healthcare facilities to undertake free testing
• Use volunteers to distribute testing kits as widely as possible, considering their safety

This lesson was contributed by a Civil Defence expert in Iceland during project data collection.