Urgency for multi-hazard protocol during the COVID-19 pandemic

The Coronavirus Disease-19 (COVID-19) pandemic undoubtedly presents an imminent danger to all countries around the world. Disaster-prone countries tend to suffer greater damage from this pandemic taking into account that it is almost impossible to halt the probability of disaster occurrence, even when the pandemic starts to reach its epidemiological peak. This article discusses the importance of creating a multi-hazard protocol for dealing with both the inherently existing danger as well as new ones.

This article is divided into five sections. First, it talks about the risk of multi-disasters taking place in Indonesia. Second, the discussion proceeds with the best practices from other countries in terms of preparedness during the COVID-19 outbreak. The discussion on best practices is then supported by a brief on existing challenges that countries might bear in dealing with disasters at the moment. Next, the article also discusses how hospitals in Indonesia were affected by recent disasters.

Lastly, the article concludes with some policy recommendations on how to prepare the country against multi-type of disasters. This includes:

• creating supporting legal measures for the management;
• enhancing civil-military coordination;
• carrying massive inspections on disaster-resilience of all healthcare facilities;
• preparing shelters which comply with health protocols;
• preparing the worst-case scenario on the larger disasters (such as tsunamis); and
• supplying first responders with rapid testing kits and personal protective equipment.

The article is only available in Bahasa Indonesia.