In December 2019, the Chinese city of Wuhan reported a novel pneumonia caused by COVID-19. While the COVID-19 pandemic has been increasingly affecting the world, the occurrence of disasters such as earthquakes, floods, and tornadoes in several countries resulted in complex emergencies. Disasters can impose multiple pressures on the health systems and cause disruptions for providing health services. On the other hand, the COVID-19 pandemic can significantly affect disaster exposure and vulnerability as well as capacities of health systems. Accordingly, the health system preparedness and response in face to dual risk of disasters and COVID-19 is important to be studied and considered by researchers and scholars.
The effects of disasters and the COVID-19 pandemic on the people’s health highlight an urgent need for merging disaster risk reduction strategies into preparedness and response plans in disaster-prone countries. For instance, disaster-affected people that live in overcrowded shelters will be living with inadequate health facilities and insufficient ventilation which can exacerbate the COVID-19 pandemic due to the increase of communicable diseases transmitted by water, air, and vectors. Preventing the destructive effects of the COVID-19 pandemic and disaster co-incidence is an important measure which can reduce deaths, injuries, and health system damage. Thus, focusing this Research Topic on the dual risk of the COVID-19 pandemic and disasters can make the researchers and scholars more sensitive to conducting research or reporting their lessons-learnt at national and international levels.
All types of papers that are accepted (e.g. original, review, case report, etc) in the following scopes will be considered for the Research Topic:
- Co-incidence of COVID-19 and geophysical, meteorological, hydrological, and climatological disasters focusing on health systems
- Co-incidence of Covid-19 and technological disasters focusing on health systems
- Health system preparedness measures and components for responding to co-incidence of the COVID-19 pandemic and disasters
- Practical experiences and lessons learnt by health experts in the field of health system preparedness for coincidence of the COVID-19 pandemic and disasters
- Community-based interventions for responding to co-incidence of COVID-19 and disasters
- Improving the institutional capacities of health systems for coincidence of COVID-19 and disasters
- Implications for the policy-making regarding the prevention of the negative effects of COVID-19 and disaster co-occurrence
- Investigating dual risk of COVID-19 and disasters in all disaster management phases (mitigation, preparedness, response, recovery)
- Protecting the health of vulnerable groups in COVID-19 and disaster co-occurrence
In December 2019, the Chinese city of Wuhan reported a novel pneumonia caused by COVID-19. While the COVID-19 pandemic has been increasingly affecting the world, the occurrence of disasters such as earthquakes, floods, and tornadoes in several countries resulted in complex emergencies. Disasters can impose multiple pressures on the health systems and cause disruptions for providing health services. On the other hand, the COVID-19 pandemic can significantly affect disaster exposure and vulnerability as well as capacities of health systems. Accordingly, the health system preparedness and response in face to dual risk of disasters and COVID-19 is important to be studied and considered by researchers and scholars.
The effects of disasters and the COVID-19 pandemic on the people’s health highlight an urgent need for merging disaster risk reduction strategies into preparedness and response plans in disaster-prone countries. For instance, disaster-affected people that live in overcrowded shelters will be living with inadequate health facilities and insufficient ventilation which can exacerbate the COVID-19 pandemic due to the increase of communicable diseases transmitted by water, air, and vectors. Preventing the destructive effects of the COVID-19 pandemic and disaster co-incidence is an important measure which can reduce deaths, injuries, and health system damage. Thus, focusing this Research Topic on the dual risk of the COVID-19 pandemic and disasters can make the researchers and scholars more sensitive to conducting research or reporting their lessons-learnt at national and international levels.
All types of papers that are accepted (e.g. original, review, case report, etc) in the following scopes will be considered for the Research Topic:
- Co-incidence of COVID-19 and geophysical, meteorological, hydrological, and climatological disasters focusing on health systems
- Co-incidence of Covid-19 and technological disasters focusing on health systems
- Health system preparedness measures and components for responding to co-incidence of the COVID-19 pandemic and disasters
- Practical experiences and lessons learnt by health experts in the field of health system preparedness for coincidence of the COVID-19 pandemic and disasters
- Community-based interventions for responding to co-incidence of COVID-19 and disasters
- Improving the institutional capacities of health systems for coincidence of COVID-19 and disasters
- Implications for the policy-making regarding the prevention of the negative effects of COVID-19 and disaster co-occurrence
- Investigating dual risk of COVID-19 and disasters in all disaster management phases (mitigation, preparedness, response, recovery)
- Protecting the health of vulnerable groups in COVID-19 and disaster co-occurrence