Community Disaster Resilience in the COVID-19 Outbreak: Insights from Shanghai’s Experience in China

Zhang, Liwei; Zhao, Ji; Liu, Jixin; Chen, Kelin

PURPOSE: Communities are central to the practice of public health emergency preparedness and response. This article mainly focuses on COVID-19 and discusses the formation and structure of community disaster resilience, which is an effective method for coping with such a public health emergency. METHODS: Based on the management of the COVID-19 outbreak in China, this article uses Shanghai’s experience to illustrate how a community disaster resilience was formed for risk management. Resorting to the analytical framework of risk city, principles of community disaster resilience are given. RESULTS: Four actions can be recommended based on Shanghai’s experience: 1) Applying a vulnerability analysis matrix for targeted risk governance, 2) empowering volunteer groups for emergency response, 3) policy and action for public health emergency prevention, and 4) risk communication for uncertainty-oriented planning. CONCLUSION: Shanghai's experience offers a reference to tackle the COVID-19 at the global level. The COVID-19 outbreak highlights that humans still face various unpredictable health risks in the future. Forming a connection-based resilience at the community level is an effective way to risk management.