Chapter Fourteen - Disaster risk management during COVID-19 pandemic

Abstract

Disaster causing threats and damages to human lives and properties leading toward economic losses can be classified as natural, biological, technological, and societal disasters. Disaster risk management primarily include (i) limiting exposure to hazardous preagents and reducing vulnerabilities and, therefore, chances for disaster to occur; (ii) formulating strategies and preparedness in terms of gathering resources and making a blueprint of actions; (iii) real-time response during a disaster, and (iv) recovery and rehabilitation of affected people. The current pandemic in the form of COVID-19 has given rise to integrating health into the overall disaster risk management strategies. The current chapter aims to develop a framework for integrating health or biological disaster management into the overall disaster risk management protocols and principles. It also suggests a shift from the traditional approach of reactive response after the outbreak/occurrence of the health disaster to a more proactive approach of health risk mitigation by building capabilities across the nation through the development of healthcare services and infrastructure to combat health disasters. Health emergencies or disasters occur due to outbreaks of diseases and indirectly due to other natural calamities or disasters, causing disruption and collapse of healthcare facilities and limiting the access of the majority of people to healthcare services. Sustainable Development Goal-13 mentions the need of urgent actions to be taken and sets targets to combat the impact of climate change causing natural disasters. It is also discussed how to minimize risk and losses during COVID-19 and the required preventive measures to be taken during pandemic in the light disaster risk reduction (DRR) framework. Therefore the guidelines developed in this chapter aim at building a resilient healthcare infrastructure alongside assuring the supply of basic needs viz. water, medicine, food, electricity, and communication during emergencies. It also estimates cost relative to the country’s budget or Gross Domestic Product (GDP) required to build an appropriate healthcare infrastructure for disaster management and performs an economic analysis of cost and benefit.