The coronavirus disease (COVID-19) is an infectious disease caused by a new strain of coronavirus.

This
new virus and disease were unknown before the outbreak began in Wuhan, China, in December 2019.

On 30 January 2020, the Philippine Department of Health reported the first case of COVID-19 in the
country with a 38-year-old female Chinese national. On 7 March, the first local transmission of COVID-19
was confirmed. WHO is working closely with the Department of Health in responding to the COVID-19
outbreak.

We are witnessing changes in the ways we use our cities in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. The
liveability of our local neighbourhoods has never been more important.

Right now, we are working together to flatten the curve by staying home to control the spread of
COVID-19 and reduce demand on health services. This means spending a lot more time at home and in
our local neighbourhoods. We are all finding out about the strengths and weaknesses in the liveability of
our neighbourhoods.

This experience can teach us some lessons about how to live and plan our communities in the future. A
liveable neighbourhood promotes good health and social cohesion, both now and after this pandemic
passes.

Better air quality

Reduced car traffic and industrial emissions are undoubtedly improving air quality in our cities. In 2018,
the World Health Organisation declared air quality was the “new smoking” as it increases respiratory
problems and cardiovascular disease. The transport sector also contributes about 25% of global carbon
dioxide emissions .

Homes, schools and care facilities located within 300 metres of major roads are more exposed to air
pollution and risk of disease. Those risks are likely to have decreased during the COVID-19 crisis.

At the moment, many of us are living and shopping locally and enjoying the co-benefits of the “slow
walkable city”: less traffic, more active modes of transport, better air quality and less noise.

Valuing social cohesion

Loneliness is a serious public health problem. It causes premature deaths on a scale similar to that of
smoking or obesity.

Pre-pandemic lifestyles involved time-poor people travelling widely to destinations for employment,
education, recreation, socialising and extracurricular activities. The suburbs were places of much social
isolation.

With these activities now reined in, are we are seeing a rise in neighbourhood social connections due to
people staying at home? Anecdotally, yes. It’s emerging through new or reinvigorated conversations
with neighbours, support and sharing of goods (toilet paper anyone?), and coordinated neighbourhood
support systems, such as WhatsApp groups and neighbourhood happy hours. Across the world, we can
see this sense of neighbourhood belonging in the form of bear hunts and rainbow chalk drawings.

It is well documented that feeling part of the community is good for your mental health. Local support
networks become even more important and valued during crises such as COVID-19.

These are just some of the more obvious reflections about the liveability of our neighbourhoods as we
stay home to help contain the spread of COVID-19. No doubt there will be many more lessons to come
that we need to remember and act on after the pandemic passes.

News conferences are an essential ingredient of a successful COVID-19 response: they provide
authoritative information based on science and evidence. As leaders of our health-care systems, health
officials can tell us how they are mobilizing their staff, including doctors, nurses and other first
responders, re-allocating resources and securing supplies needed to handle the tsunami of illness.

Politicians’ role

But politicians are also playing a crucial role in this fight. The co-operation of the public is essential, so it
falls to our elected representatives to mobilize a collective effort on a scale that few of us have seen in
our lifetimes. To win, political leaders must tap into a vital resource: our willingness to sacrifice for the
greater good.

Humans, at our best, are highly co-operative creatures. Our capacity to co-operate is motivated by
empathy, care and bonds of attachment. Research in economics and psychology tells us that fairness
fosters co-operation.

Fairness requires that front-line workers, who bear the responsibility to provide care, are prioritized to
receive personal protective equipment since they are most exposed. Fairness also plays a role in the
tough choices medical professionals make when they consider how to allocate scarce resources: who
gets a bed, a ventilator, a vaccine.

These decisions are guided by the values of life and equality, and the priority of those in our society who
are most vulnerable. Indeed, in a pandemic, health care necessarily shifts from patient-centred to
public-centred care.

Beyond the obvious imperative of physical distancing, practising good hygiene and staying home to
flatten the epidemic curve, our ethical challenge is to harness fairness in the fight against COVID-19. By
appealing to our sense of fairness, politicians may be laying the foundation for a new kind of social
equality — in our health-care systems, our economic policies and in our democracies.

. Gardening – indoors and out

If you’re lucky enough to have a yard or balcony, now may be a good time to do some gardening.
Gardening can offer benefits such as reductions in stress, anxiety and depression. As a physical activity,
gardening can also improve physical fitness and support weight loss.

Gardens can also provide habitat for wildlife, potentially introducing you to new plants, pollinating
insects and birds. Urban biodiversity benefits us too.

Our study found strong links between gardening and self-reported well-being. If you don’t have a yard,
gardening on a balcony or tending to indoor plants also has benefits. One participant explained:

Urban nature now and for the future

Nature can support our well-being now, when we all could use the help, but we need to protect it.
Climate change talks have been postponed because of the COVID-19 pandemic, but it is clear climate
change has not stalled, even taking into account the effect of lockdown on emissions.

There are lasting ways to reduce our emissions and create low-carbon and cooler cities. And the earlier
we act, the better the outcomes will be.

If you have a yard, planting trees might be a good lockdown activity now and will ultimately benefit your
future.
ACCESS TO PUBLIC PLACES

Authorities have imposed significant restrictions on the size, purpose and location of gatherings in public
space to slow the transmission of COVID-19. The massive impacts of these escalating restrictions over
the past two months show us just how significant public spaces are for the life of our cities. A longer-
term concern is the risk that living with these measures might normalise restrictions on, and surveillance
of, our access to public space and one another.

Right now, public health is the priority. But access to public spaces was already significantly and unjustly
restricted for many people before the coronavirus pandemic. Current restrictions could both intensify
existing inequalities in access and reinforce trends towards “locking down” public space.

Restrictions have inequitable impacts

Unless public health interventions are enacted with an awareness of their profoundly uneven
consequences, we may well “flatten the curve” in ways that add to existing inequalities and injustices.

Research suggests restrictions on public space have greater impacts on people who have less access to
private space. People without stable homes, and those with restricted access to domestic space, tend to
live more of their lives in public. Public space restrictions have far greater consequences for these
people.

We can see this relationship very clearly: the restrictions are paired with instructions to stay at home.
This applies to everyone. But, while it’s inconvenient for some, it’s impossible for others.

It’s certainly the case for the homeless. It will also be true of others. For instance, students may be living
in crowded conditions in shared, family or informal accommodation, with no access to quiet private
space for study.

Interestingly, as urban authorities try to provide large populations with access to public spaces in which
they can maintain recommended physical distance, some existing restrictions are being rethought. Cities
are closing streets to cars to give pedestrians more space rather than having to crowd onto footpaths. It
will be interesting to see if such measures persist once physical-distancing restrictions are lifted.

Let’s hope our experience of the inconvenience and frustration of restricted access to public space will
translate into a more widely shared determination not only to end these restrictions when the health
crisis is over, but also to act on the unjust exclusions and restrictions that were already a feature of
urban life.

As with so many other aspects of our society, it is not enough simply to go back to how things were
before. We must ensure our public spaces are not unjustly restricted when the next crisis comes along.

INTRO

Before January this year, many people around the world had never heard of Wuhan. Today, this Chinese
megacity – population 11 million – has achieved notoriety as the birthplace of a pandemic.

The global connectivity of cities such as Wuhan has enabled the rapid spread of Covid-19 around the
planet. Now the density and dynamism of cities – the very qualities that make them rewarding places to
live and work – prove a threat. Global economic and cultural capitals have been the first to be
overwhelmed: Hong Kong, London, New York City, Milan, Seoul. Cities once defined by bustling
streetscapes are now in lockdown: Buenos Aires, Cape Town, Delhi, Madrid, San Francisco.

A critical point for cities and the climate

Our first concern at this time must be protecting lives and livelihoods. Looking forward, this pandemic
could shape city life for years to come - years that are also critical for the climate crisis.

The rich can bear the pandemic – their incomes continue to be paid, their homes tend to be more
spacious and they largely face this new risk in good health. The poor in inner-city neighbourhoods
cannot, however. Millions of people are being confined in apartments without natural light or green
space. Millions work in essential jobs where they are poorly paid and particularly exposed to Covid-19 –
bus drivers, carers, cleaners, police, teachers, supermarket staff and, of course, health care workers.
Millions have pre-existing health conditions linked to poverty, such as malnutrition and diabetes.

The rich can bear the pandemic – their incomes continue to be paid, their homes tend to be more
spacious and they largely face this new risk in good health. The poor in inner-city neighbourhoods
cannot, however. Millions of people are being confined in apartments without natural light or green
space. Millions work in essential jobs where they are poorly paid and particularly exposed to Covid-19 –
bus drivers, carers, cleaners, police, teachers, supermarket staff and, of course, health care workers.
Millions have pre-existing health conditions linked to poverty, such as malnutrition and diabetes.

The poor in informal settlements face an even more precarious situation. Without basic services such as
piped water, handwashing is hard. Overcrowding means that social distancing is not possible. Those who
cannot go out to work in the day cannot feed their families in the evening. Those that travel to work,
face higher exposure rates. From Barcelona to Buenos Aires, London to Lagos, the tight relationship
between poverty, health and risk in cities is being thrown into stark relief.

In the medium-term, climate change may be deprioritised as decision-makers focus on public health and
economic recovery. In this case, emissions will quickly rise again. Extended social distancing in cramped
living spaces might fuel public appetite for sprawling suburbia. This would threaten ecosystem services
and biodiversity, increasing exposure to climate hazards while reducing people’s ability to adapt. Fear of
using mass transit may inspire the large-scale use of private cars (as we are already seeing in Wuhan).
Meanwhile, the upfront costs associated with building retrofits, electric vehicles and solar panels may
not be palatable during a recession

Politocs

MANILA - The COVID-19 pandemic should be a "learning experience" for voters on the leaders they
elect, a political analyst said Tuesday.

Local governments are prepared for natural hazards but many, if not all, are ill-prepared in "dealing with
a pandemic of this scale," according to Professor Ador Torneo, director of De La Salle University's Jesse
M. Robredo Institute of Governance.

"Once we get through this crisis, this should be a learning experience for us in terms not only of the kind
of leaders we elect but also what kind of programs that we should call for," he told ANC.

"It emerges at this time how important electing leaders that are very capable, highly competent and
have a clear sense of priority is emerging more than ever."

EXPERIENCE

Globally, many people are afraid, angry, uncertain, and without confidence in their national leadership.
But alongside these dark sentiments, images of solidarity have emerged. Health workers have shown an
incredible commitment to their communities and responded with compassion and resolve to tackle the
virus despite challenging and sometimes dangerous conditions. Neighbours have organised to support
vulnerable people; businesses and national governments have stepped up to provide support for those
who need it and strengthen social security and health services. The pandemic has also brought examples
of international solidarity, with the sharing of resources, information, and expertise from countries
further ahead in the epidemic, or with better results in controlling the spread. China's experience will be
crucial to understanding how to lift restrictions safely.
Community

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The COVID-19 pandemic is an unprecedented crisis that brings with it a lot of problems, especially for
the poor and marginalized sectors of our society. Those who have the least financial and other means
have the hardest time dealing with the pandemic’s impacts on health and health services, loss of
income, limited mobility and other struggles.

This crisis is challenging us, as a species, to bring about an increased sense of our humanity, community
and compassion.

As governments, international health agencies and local officials struggle to contain the global infection
and its effects, we also see citizens and communities coming together in support of each other,
especially for the frontliners and sectors who are experiencing the most difficulty.

With the enforcement of a Luzon-wide Enhanced Community Quarantine, communities are struggling to
find their next meals, due either to loss of income or access to food sources, or a combination of both.
But some chefs and other concerned citizens have set up various community kitchens and food
programs to try and ease a bit of the burden.

Instill empathy and concern for our health workers

Our health workers are the current heroes of the world. They put their lives and safety on the line for all
of us. The last thing that we could do is add more burden and risk to their well-being, and as health
professionals, they should be accorded full respect and utmost concern.

So the least that we can contribute is to abide by protocols. We should never assert our social status and
political positions if only to beat around the bush. Further, we can always lend them financial, material,
and moral support. One way to cheer them on is by hanging a green ribbon on your door or gate, or by
adding a green ribbon to your profile pic.

Social distancing doesn’t mean we can’t feel close to our loved ones. Get creative. Have a video chat to
get together and celebrate birthdays or other occasions using everyday tools like Skype, Hangouts or
Zoom. Or, synchronise watching your favourite TV show or movie together while chatting via text or
video.

For many of us, it has been a stunning experience to find ourselves adjusting our daily routines to take
safety precautions to protect ourselves, loved ones, and neighbors.