COVID 19 Pandemic Public Implications of Government Response

Keywords:  corona virus, coronavirus, covid, covid-19
Executive Summary
The current coronavirus health crisis facing the world has brought about a need for rethinking and reorientation of public administration. Public administration in many of the jurisdictions has been tasked with the role of keeping the public safe; by ensuring that there are no public gatherings and that people remain in their homes. To emphasize on social distancing, government, and in general, public administrations have banned mass public gatherings of all kinds (McCloskey et al., 2020). In various jurisdictions, the ban on mass gathering has been designed to address the specific aspects of society. So far, pubic administrations have been effective in the implementation of social distancing measures, and in general, the actions taken by public administrations are supported by the masses, despite the little challenges that such measures might bring about. However, it is expected that as new information on the virus continues to be available, public administrations will revise their measures appropriately.
Introduction
The novel coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) has so far has a significant effect on lives on a global scale. It has been classified as a threat to national security my many countries and regions, and thus, putting in place several measures to curb the spread of the contagious disease. One of these measures is a ban on mass gathering, as an effort to minimize mass spread in case one member of the gathering is a carrier (Fong et al., 2020). Public administration in many of the jurisdictions has been tasked with the role of keeping the public safe; by ensuring that there are no pubic gatherings and that people keep into their homes. This event is sure to impact public administration is a socioeconomic and political dimension (O'Leary, Van Slyke & Kim, 2010). In this paper, therefore, the analysis will be done to determine how the ban and the implementation of the same are influencing public administration.
Scenario background
The current health scourge facing the world, Coronavirus disease – COVID-19, has brought about significant changes in the normal way of life. The disease is contagious – spread from an infected person to another through physical contact, through contaminated surfaces, or droplets during coughing or sneezing (Fong et al., 2020). The disease has had a significant effect, with the death toll rising daily, with some of the hard-hit countries like Spain and Italy reported a daily death rate of over 500 people (Tuite et al., 2020).
The disease does not yet have any known treatment, and thus, healthcare personnel can only manage the symptoms of the disease, which include cough, breathing difficulties, and general body aches. Because of this fact, it has meant that the health systems of countries have been overwhelmed and the available resources, e.g., ventilators, being often not enough to sustain the ever-growing number of COVID-19 patients admitted in the hospitals. Given the nature of the disease, the effective measure to combat it has been social distancing and keeping a high level of personal hygiene, with the main method being effective washing of hands, frequently.
To emphasize on social distancing, government, and in general, public administrations have banned mass public gatherings of all kinds. In various jurisdictions, the ban on mass gathering has been designed to address the specific aspects of the society, e.g., Lockdown, curfew, closing of non-essential service providers, and other public functions, e.g., places of worship, learning institutions, markets, and shopping malls. Public administrators at all levels have been involved in the implementation of these social distancing measures. The entire public administration machinery, from the white-house to state government and local sheriff, are all stakeholders in managing the response to COVID-19.
Analysis
Given the nature of the disease, and based on the fact that it is a novel virus, knowledge of the disease has been limited, and thus, to combat, it was a problem. However, with the benefit of hindsight, probably the best strategy to combat the disease when it was still localized in Wuhan china was for the country to Ban movement within and out of Wuhan. However, when the disease had been exported out of China, the best strategy for countries would have been to ban all internal passenger travel, and those willing to enter, be willing to undertake a mandatory 14-day quarantine, whether manifesting the disease symptoms or not.
This notwithstanding, at the moment, social distancing is probably the best strategy that public officials can undertake to minimize the spread of the disease. This method is beneficial because it helps to flatten the curve of the COVID-19 infection contamination graph. For public administration, this has a positive effect because it has been proven to work, for example, in China, wherein March, the number of new infections daily was zero, and the country is only reporting imported cases now, despite being the country where the disease was reported first. This positive effect on curbing the disease has been due to the effective tracking of immediate contacts of tested-positive patients and the lockdown that was implemented in Wuhan and Hubei province, the public administration.
Recommendations
As new information on the virus continues to be available, it is obvious that new and more effective strategies to fight the disease will continue to be implemented. However, at the moment, it is recommended that public administration continue to implement social distancing measures that are effective in each specific region. More importantly, there is a need to ensure that before the social distancing measure put in place is lifted, there is an effective global coordinated effort to ensure that in almost all regions report zero new infections in healthcare settings. This strategy, however, might be hard to achieve, given the nationalistic worldviews that have been witnessed in various countries. The ultimate strategy for public administrations, working closely with the medical-health and medical-scholar professionals, is to find effective vaccines for the virus.
Conclusion
The current coronavirus disease has meant a reorientation of public administration in a manner that has not been experienced since World War II. However, even with the various and significant challenges attached to this novel disease, so far, public administration has made sufficient effort to fulfill their most sacred duty – the protection of human life. Even though right now, countries and governments are all focused on mitigation efforts, it is obvious that after this is finished, there will be a more critical analysis of public administrations’ response and handling of the Coronavirus disease.
Reference
Fong, M. W., Gao, H., Wong, J. Y., Xiao, J., Shiu, E. Y., Ryu, S., & Cowling, B. J. (2020). Nonpharmaceutical Measures for Pandemic Influenza in Nonhealthcare Settings-Social Distancing Measures. Emerging infectious diseases, 26(5).
McCloskey, B., Zumla, A., Ippolito, G., Blumberg, L., Arbon, P., Cicero, A., ... & Borodina, M. (2020). Mass gathering events and reducing further global spread of COVID-19: a political and public health dilemma. The Lancet.
O'Leary, R., Van Slyke, D. M., & Kim, S. (Eds.). (2010). The future of public administration around the world: The Minnowbrook perspective. Washington, DC: Georgetown University Press.
Tuite, A. R., Ng, V., Rees, E., & Fisman, D. (2020). Estimation of COVID-19 outbreak size in Italy. The Lancet Infectious Diseases.