Improving COVID-19 and pandemic preparedness and response through the downstream of multi-hazard early warning system

Many countries are now suffering after years of insufficient attention to warnings about the need for improved pandemic preparedness. The WHO has declared COVID-19 a pandemic, but its underlying factors, vulnerabilities and impacts go far beyond the health sector, and in Sri Lanka, it is overwhelming government and response agencies. This study will address two, inter-related challenges: How will countries cope if a major natural hazard occurs while the COVID-19 pandemic is ongoing? How can pandemic preparedness make use of the existing infrastructure for tackling other hazards? The project team will attempt to understand the potential impact of a pandemic-natural hazard hybrid scenario. It will also seek to improve early warning and preparedness for such an event, as well as the availability of and access to multi-hazard early warning systems (MHEW) and disaster risk information that include pandemic/biological hazards, which is also Target G of the SFDRR [1]. We will address these challenges by examining how public health actors be better included within a MHEW environment and how pandemic threats are integrated within national and local DRR strategies. We will explore the impact of COVID-19 on the response capabilities for other hazards, either multiple simultaneous events, or cascading impacts, and consider how COVID-19 and public health surveillance can be synergised with "the last mile" of MHEW. Pandemic is global, but the preparedness and response is local, and that response is very dependent on governance, laws, culture, risk perception and citizen behaviour. The study has been designed in close collaboration with Sri Lankan health and DRR agencies who identified the key gaps that need exploring. The team will develop and disseminate guidance to better incorporate pandemics and other biological hazards into national and local DRR preparedness and response