Risk Communication and Community Engagement During the Migrant Worker COVID-19 Outbreak in Singapore

Government responses to the COVID-19 pandemic of the Gulf Cooperation Council countries: good practices and lessons for future preparedness

The COVID-19 pandemic has dramatically threatened the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries which have a large proportion of foreign workers. The governments of GCC countries have proactively implemented a comprehensive set of policy measures, and up to our knowledge, a systematic analysis of qualitative and quantitative evidence on the government response is still lacking. We summarized the GCC countries' government response and quantitatively measured that response using four indexes-the Government Response Index, the Stringency Index, the Vaccine Index, and the Initial Response Index, to analyse their response for future pandemic preparedness. Overall, the government response of all the GCC countries to the COVID-19 pandemic has been comprehensive, stringent, and timely. Notably, the GCC countries have implemented comprehensive vaccine policies. In addition, they have worked actively to protect foreign workers to improve their access to health services and secure their essential living conditions, regardless of their immigrant status. All the GCC countries dynamically adjusted their response to the evolving COVID-19 epidemiological burden and started to relax the stringency of the control policies after the Omicron wave, though the governments had different response magnitudes as measured by the four indexes. These findings have provided several important lessons for future pandemic response and preparedness for countries with similar economic, demographic, and health contexts in (1) prompt actions of containment and closure policies with dynamic adjusting, (2) strengthening health system policies, (3) comprehensive vaccination policies with universal access, (4) equitable and free access to testing, diagnosis, and treatment for all, and (5) strengthening the resilience of health systems.

Innovate emergency governance mechanism of urban communities in response to major public health events: A qualitative study from multiple principals in Guangzhou, China

Since the end of 2019, the sudden outbreak of COVID-19 has challenged the emergency governance systems of various countries. As the cornerstone of national governance, China's community emergency governance mainly adopts top-down organizational mobilization and rapid response, which is typical abnormal governance. In responding to major public health events, China's national system has developed certain advantages in some respects. However, the current pandemic is still serious in many places, and new mutant strains are constantly appearing. Some drawbacks of such system and mechanism are gradually emerging. In the process of preventing and controlling the pandemic, China's urban communities have continuously improved the joint mechanism, and played the role of multiple principals in collaborative and co-governance. The current work of pandemic prevention and control has entered a period of normalization. What is the collaborative mechanism of multiple principals (Subdistrict headquarter, Community committee, Owners' committee, Community hospital, Local police station, Property management company, etc.) in urban communities participating in emergencies and how to seek ways to further improve the mechanism? Therefore, taking the community practice and actions in Guangzhou, China as an example, the present study employed a qualitative design, proposed to better community emergency governance mechanisms from the aspects of preparedness, response, communication and recovery, so as to provide a reference for other grassroots organizations.

Risk Communication Distributed among Migrant Workers during the COVID-19 Crisis in Thailand: Analysis on Structural and Networking Gaps

Language and cultural barriers among migrant workers hamper access to health risk information. This study aims to explore health risk communication structure and processes and identify the communication network of migrant workers during the COVID-19 pandemic in Thailand. This study used a parallel mixed-methods design combined with in-depth interviews and questionnaires for social network analysis from November 2020 to June 2021 in the headquarter district of Samut Sakhon, Ranong, and Phuket provinces. We conducted purposive sampling of representatives from public and non-public organisations and local communities. Thirty-six key informants participated in in-depth interviews, and fifty-six respondents completed the questionnaire for social network analysis. Although health risk communication included various activities, there was no formal governing body responsible for health risk communication among migrants, and monitoring and evaluation of communication process were not well-implemented. The health risk communication network was centralised, especially in the rural area; however, migrant health volunteers (MHVs) and local media were key sources of information for most migrants in communities. Overall, a governing body led by the government with intersectional collaboration and a health risk communication process should be promoted while considering migrants’ characteristics and concerns. The health risk communication network should identify key communicators such as MHVs and local media. This can be an effective strategy to fill the gap of information dependency.

Learning From the Past: The Role of Social and Behavior Change Programming in Public Health Emergencies

The contributions of social and behavior change research/programming in 6 recent epidemics highlight the importance of further integrating such expertise into outbreak response.