Tackling the COVID-19 Pandemic: Managing the Cause, Spread, and Impact

       The outbreak of SARS-CoV-2 or COVID-19 is attacking societies in all regions. The speed and scale of the outbreak have been accelerating fatalities and causing social and economic disruption. We need coordinated and comprehensive actions on the national and international level in creating a shared responsibility and  human solidarity to suppress the spread of the virus, empower resilience in society, and address the virus’ socio-economic impact. Increasing the healthcare capacity for testing and tracing, implementing quarantine and physical distancing measures, restricting movement, and prioritizing the most vulnerable groups – the elderly and/or chronically sick patients – should be treated as ways to minimize the spread and impact of the virus. Furthermore, the social and economic dimensions of this crisis must be managed to enhance the resilience of societies and countries.

    There have been catastrophic losses due to this pandemic, leading to fatalities and bringing instability to many social and economic urban areas. The approaches to tackling this virus must be well-established. Making society safe in this pandemic is everybody’s business. Governments, the private sector, academics, and professionals, as well as every citizen, need to be engaged and play their role in building a resilient society in terms of health, economic, and social resilience. Citizen empowerment is crucial in mitigating the impacts of the pandemic, including the ability to adapt to shock, panic, and stress and to quickly respond to an unstable environment.

    Measuring vulnerability and its impact is necessary for pandemic management strategies to be developed and implemented, including appropriate preparedness and effective responses. Technology needs to be employed to assist us in tackling the pandemic by producing a suitable strategy for monitoring, treating, mitigating, and recovering from the pandemic’s impact. To anticipate the impact, a comprehensive plan is required for increasing the capacity for disruptions and surges in demand, especially for basic needs such as health and medicine, food, water, and energy.

    The pandemic has been pushing lot of researchers to learn more about the behavior of this strain of virus family known for their crown-like shape. The search for the most suitable vaccines is racing ahead, given the number of mortalities all over the world. Since viruses always need a kind of substrate containing protein to attach, investigations in the field of materials that can repel them is important. In this sense, the use of nanostructure materials is thought to be a promising solution due to their vast areas that can effectively interact with and kill the virus. Such applications of these useful nanomaterials can be in the form of antimicrobial coatings, drug delivery systems, and biosensors, and they can also be used for environmental purposes. Furthermore, the pandemic creates an increasing demand for chemicals and supporting materials such as hand sanitizer, disinfectant, and face masks to prevent the spread of COVID-19 and a need for healthy drinking water and clean handwashing facilities.

    Modern technology makes a lot of research approaches and endeavors into this matter possible. Several simulators and a lot of modelling software enable researchers to quickly represent the properties of COVID-19 and predict its behavior, both on the micro-scale (e.g., microbiology, medical, and pharmaceutical fields) and the macro-scale (e.g., COVID-19 transmission and spread). Gathering related data during the COVID-19 outbreak, such as location tracking by mobile devices, temperature, and other situation-aware IoT sensors, allows data scientists and artificial intelligence (AI) to conduct big data analysis, where researchers can use many tools to obtain valuable insights, make predictions and personalized suggestions, plan and evaluate strategies (e.g., how to manage the supply chain during physical distancing), and save more lives. The advancement of DIY small electronics and robotics also produces several prototypes of useful tools such as ventilators, which have been vital for helping COVID-19 patients and which are in high demand in many healthcare facilities. The use of additive manufacturing and 3D printing is also playing an important role in addressing the part shortages and supply chain challenges.

     In terms of urban development, the current situation in the COVID-19 pandemic suggests the need to rethink the role of resilience knowledge and practices to contribute strategically by ensuring the performance of the built environment to meet the health-related criteria. Research and designs focusing on building material performance and indoor environmental quality become critical to promote architecture that supports hygiene, infection control, and occupants’ health and safety. The resiliency of any nation facing this pandemic also depends on the supply chain management (SCM) system of food, medicines, materials, and anything related to life savings and the economy, since SCM manages the flow of information to attain a level of synchronization between responsiveness and cost efficiency. Furthermore, physical distancing measures highlight the fact that the advancement of information technology must continuously improve in order to create a more reliable and robust logistics service. 

    Changing how workplaces run and reducing activity in the industrial sectors that have a high energy consumption intensity such as factories, airports, and entertainment venues will be much reduced, while in the household sector, medical service locations such as hospitals and health clinics will increase sharply. Electricity network operators in each country should prepare to anticipate fluctuations in power demands, electricity grid balancing, and a need to maintain the power system reliability. Many offices and business centers are turning to the internet as a means to work remotely. As many people are now getting familiar with online facilities for work and school, robust broadband, internet, and data center technologies are required to keep everything working together seamlessly even during peak load. In addition, cyber security plays an important role in securing the remote users and data as well as in quickly mitigating negative, false, or misleading content.