Corona Virus Disease 2019 Outbreak: Action Plan for Risk Communication and Community Engagement

Abstract

The Corona Virus Disease-2019 (COVID-19) outbreak, which originated in China has been declared as a Public Health Emergency of International Concern. Considering the fact that we are not very much certain about various epidemiological and causative virus attributes, it is quite obvious that a lot of myths and misconceptions will be spreading across the community. Thus, it is crucial to establish an action plan for risk communication and community engagement in already affected nations as well as those nations which are still not affected by the virus. In general, while formulating an action plan for the nations which have not yet reported any case of the disease, we predominantly concentrate on risk communication systems, coordination with different stakeholders, public communication, community engagement, capacity building and strategies to deal with prevailing myths & misconception about the disease. In conclusion, in the current COVID-19 outbreak, the risk communication and community engagement activities are critical components of the preparedness and response plan and all steps should be taken to strengthen the same for a better containment of the outbreak.