In every emergency, there are always people who use their creativity and compassion to help those around them to survive and thrive. And the current coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic is no different.
The WHO emergency response team in the WHO Western Pacific Region has been collecting innovative ideas and so-called “grounds up” solutions that are allowing people to live their lives while staying safe. These ideas have been collated in a series of tip sheets for leaders of all kinds, including heads of government, businesses, religious communities, schools, long-term care facilities and families.
“This virus is clearly not going away anytime soon,” says Dr Babatunde Olowokure, WHO’s Regional Emergency Director for the Western Pacific. “So we need to find ways to get on with our lives in the best way possible while keeping each other safe. We hope that sharing these ideas will inspire others to also think through and implement creative solutions in their own communities.”
The full set of tip sheets is available at the link below. Here are five of our favourite ideas to date:
Promoting handwashing through song and dance
In March, a catchy handwashing dance became a worldwide trend through its release on TikTok. The dance, created by Quang Đăng and set to a melody adapted collaboratively by songwriter Khac Hung and Viet Nam’s National Institute of Occupational and Environmental Health, is an entertaining yet accurate way to convey the key steps to properly wash your hands with soap and water.
Schoolchildren maintain physical distance by creating winged hats
Children in a primary school in Hangzhou, China, created winged hats out of coloured paper, cardboard and other art supplies. The hats, loosely modelled on a style worn by Chinese officials during the Song Dynasty (960–1279 AD), provided a fun history lesson and craft activity for students while helping to ensure pupils keep one metre’s distance from each other.
Temporary bike lanes decrease congestion on public transport
One Filipino neighbourhood, Taguig, has used traffic cones as a temporary measure to extend the network of lanes reserved for bicycles, kick scooters and other personal forms of transportation. Promoting cycling helps protect people from COVID-19 in three ways: decongesting crowded public transport, getting people outside (associated with a lower risk of transmission than enclosed spaces) and encouraging physical activity. Physical activity lowers people’s risk of noncommunicable diseases – underlying health conditions that put people at greater risk of severe illness if infected with the coronavirus. Being outside and physically active also benefit mental health at a time when people are facing stress, sadness and loneliness.
Giving market customers umbrellas to encourage physical distancing
A village in Kerala, India, in the neighbouring WHO South-East Asia Region, was reportedly distributing umbrellas to residents as a way of promoting physical distancing. Two adults holding open standard-size umbrellas (about 90 centimetres in diameter) will naturally have to be at least one metre apart.
Drive-ins for everything
The Republic of Korea led the way with drive-in COVID-19 testing. Since then, there have been reports of drive-in veterinary clinics, drive-in religious services and drive-in cinemas. This allows people to venture outside their homes while maintaining a barrier – the frame of their car – between them and others outside their households.
See the full set of tips and ideas and spark your creative thinking here.