(I need a big essay) ( I will mark you as brainliest if u answer fast) WHAT THE STEPS TO BE TAKEN by us DURING THIS PANDEMIC in public places
Answers
Answer:
all healthcare facilities can take steps now to prepare for such an outbreak and protect both their patients and staff.
Be prepared:
Stay informed about the local COVID-19 situation. Know where to turn for reliable, up-to-date information in your local community. Monitor the CDC COVID-19 website and your state and local health department websitesexternal icon for the latest information.
Develop, or review, your facility’s emergency plan. A COVID-19 outbreak in your community could lead to staff absenteeism. Prepare alternative staffing plans to ensure as many of your facility’s staff are available as possible.
Establish relationships with key healthcare and public health partners in your community. Make sure you know about healthcare and public health emergency planning and response activities in your community. Learn about plans to manage patients, accept transfers, and share supplies. Review any memoranda of understanding (MOUs) with affiliates, your healthcare coalition, and other partners to provide support or assistance during emergencies.
Create an emergency contact list. Develop and continuously update emergency contact lists for key partners and ensure the lists are accessible in key locations in your facility. For example, know how to reach your local or state health department in an emergency.
Communicate with staff and patients:
Communicate about COVID-19 with your staff. Share information about what is currently known about COVID-19, the potential for surge, and your facility’s preparedness plans.
Communicate about COVID-19 with your patients. Provide updates about changes to your policies regarding appointments, providing non-urgent patient care by telephone, and visitors. Consider using your facility’s website or social media pages to share updates.
Protect your workforce:
Screen patients and visitors for fever, respiratory symptoms, or other symptoms before entering your healthcare facility. Keep up to date on the recommendations for preventing spread of COVID-19 on CDC’s website.
Ensure proper use of personal protection equipment (PPE). Healthcare personnel who come in close contact with confirmed or possible patients with COVID-19 should wear the appropriate personal protective equipment.
Conduct an inventory of available PPE. Consider conducting an inventory of available PPE supplies. Explore strategies to optimize PPE supplies.
Encourage sick employees to stay home. Personnel who develop fever, respiratory symptoms, or other symptoms should be instructed not to report to work. Ensure that your sick leave policies are flexible and consistent with public health guidance and that employees are aware of these policies.
Protect your patients:
Stay up-to-date on the best ways to manage patients with COVID-19.
Separate patients with fever, respiratory symptoms, or other symptoms so they are not waiting among other patients seeking care. Identify a separate, well-ventilated space that allows waiting patients and visitors to be separated.
Consider the strategies to prevent patients who can be cared for at home from coming to your facility potentially exposing themselves or others to germs, like:
Using your telephone system to deliver messages to incoming callers about when to seek medical care at your facility, when to seek emergency care, and where to go for information about caring for a person with COVID at home.
Adjusting your hours of operation to include telephone triage and follow-up of patients during a community outbreak.
Leveraging telemedicine technologies and self-assessment tools.
Answer:
The goal of planning and coordination efforts is to provide leadership and coordination across sectors.
This section provides specific actions to be taken by national authorities and WHO. The new WHO pandemic phases and a summary of recommended actions for each phase are presented in picture . Recommendations are grouped by pandemic phases and the five components of preparedness and response which are the following:1.planning and coordination
2.situation monitoring and assessment
3.reducing the spread of disease
4.continuity of health care provision
5.communications.
The goal of planning and coordination efforts is to provide leadership and coordination across sectors. One important aspect is to integrate pandemic preparedness into national emergency preparedness frameworks.
The goal of situation monitoring and assessment is to collect, interpret, and disseminate information on the risk of a pandemic before it occurs and, once under way, to monitor pandemic activity and characteristics. To assess if the risk of a pandemic is increasing, it will be important to monitor the infectious agent, its capacity to cause disease in humans, and the patterns of disease spread in communities. It is important to collect data on influenza viruses, the genetic changes taking place and consequent changes in biological characteristics, and to rapidly investigate and evaluate outbreaks. Once a pandemic influenza virus begins to circulate, it will be vital to assess the effectiveness of the response measures.
Reducing the spread of disease will depend significantly upon increasing the “social distance” between people. Measures such as individual/household level measures, societal-level measures and international travel measures, and the use of antivirals, other pharmaceuticals, and vaccines will be important.
Individual/household level measures include risk communication, individual hygiene and personal protection, and home care of the ill and quarantine of contacts. Societal-level measures are applied to societies or communities rather than individuals or families. These measures require a behavioural change in the population, multiple sector involvement, mobilization of resources, strong communication, and media support.
International travel measures aim to delay the entry of pandemic disease into not-yet-affected countries and will have an impact on international traffic and trade. Countries should balance reducing the risks to public health and avoiding unnecessary interference with international traffic and trade.
The use of pharmaceutical interventions to prevent or treat influenza encompasses a range of approaches. Additionally, the successful prevention and treatment of secondary or pre-existing conditions will be a key factor in many settings for reducing the overall burden of illness and death.
During a pandemic, health systems will need to provide health-care services while attending to the influx of patients with influenza illness. Planning for surge capacity in health-care facilities will help determine the extent to which the existing health system can expand to manage the additional patient load. Health-care facilities will need to maintain adequate triage and infection control measures to protect health-care workers, patients, and visitors.
The goal of communications before and during a pandemic is to provide and exchange relevant information with the public, partners, and stakeholders to allow them to make well informed decisions and take appropriate actions to protect health and safety and response and is a fundamental part of effective risk management. Communications should be based on the five principles outlined in WHO's outbreak communications planning guide:25 planning; trust; transparency; announcing early; and listening. Given the complex risks and perceptions associated with an influenza pandemic, communication strategies that simply disseminate outbreak information and recommendations will be insufficient. The scope and complexity of the task demands frequent, transparent, and proactive communication and information exchange with the public, partners, and other stakeholders about decision making, health recommendations, and related information. In addition to the suggested actions which follow below, countries are encouraged to develop core risk communication capacities such as those described in the WHO outbreak communication planning guide. By developing a solid foundation for pandemic influenza communications, Member States would also strengthen communication response systems for any public health emergency that may arise.
