COVID-19 Coronavirus Pandemic – What are the Lessons Learnt?

by Whizible

March 24, 2020

For Leaders and Project Managers

It was first reported on December 31, 2019, by the Chinese Authorities to the WHO – about a cluster of 41 patients with mysterious pneumonia in the city of Wuhan in Hubei province of China (ref.1,2).

The Chinese authorities were able to isolate the virus and named it novel coronavirus, nCoV, on January 7, 2020. Initially, the coronavirus disease was restricted to the area near the Wuhan seafood market. As a precautionary measure,the Chinese Government closed that seafood market and isolated the patients. At that time, there was inconclusive evidence that the virus spreads human-to-human (ref.2).

The coronavirus disease which was named as Covid-19 by WHO spread like wildfire across countries which had come in contact with China, in a really short time. Covid-19 recorded and exponential growth in the number of cases, spreading from one Chinese city of Wuhan to 192 countries and territories and one cruise ship harboured in Japan, according to WHO (ref.3). On March 11, 2020, WHO declared COVID-19 a pandemic.

The staggering number of infected COVID-19 Coronavirus Pandemic cases stands at

381,653 on March 24, 2020 (https://www.worldometers.info/coronavirus/#countries), including deaths and recovered cases. These are spread across 192 countries and territories, and the top 10 affected countries are China, Italy, USA, Spain, Germany, Iran, France, South Korea, Switzerland and the UK. India ranks 42nd at this moment in terms of the total coronavirus affected cases.

How is the world handling the COVID-19 pandemic?

To contain an outbreak of such a magnitude, affected countries adopted innovative approaches. China, South Korea, Taiwan and Singapore showed the world that by starting early and taking rapid actions, the COVID-19 coronavirus pandemic could be contained, and the countries can recover at a faster rate than expected(ref. 4).

According to the world-leading experts on epidemiology, the disease spreads among clusters of related individuals, co-workers or family members who come in close contact with each other, thereby making it important to identify these clusters and take rapid and strict action to break the pattern.

The most aggressive and rapid measures were taken by these countries need to be adopted by all the countries.

The measures are taken by the world to contain COVID-19 coronavirus pandemic

Advocating intensive handwashing
Containing the problem at the local level by following
- Isolation of the infected patients and contact tracing
- Ensure maximum possible testing to identify affected cases
- Extreme social distancing
- Appeal to the public to avoid any non-essential travel
- If people don’t comply, shutdown the public transport to restrict local travel
- Shut down non-essential shops to avoid crowding
Reducing the intercity and interstate movement of people
- Stop domestic flights
- Intercity passenger transport
Closing down the international borders for
- Travellers from the affected countries
- Non-residents
- Non-essential Trade
Shutting down the international borders completely
Ensuring adequate testing kits and proper procedures
Setting up temporary hospitals and isolation centres
Not letting the guard down even after the first wave of contagion has died down

What went wrong with the countries who are struggling to contain the spread of COVID-19

Failure to accept the disease impact risk assessment done by the scientists and epidemiologists, exa USA
Starting late, exa some US states
Taking incremental steps as a response to disease progression, exa Italy
Poor compliance of Government directives of social distancing and self-quarantine by people, exa. India, USA
Not measuring the spread of disease due to
- Failure to do testing at an early stage, irrespective of available capacity, exa India
- Failure to procure adequate testing kits, exa USA
Lack of proper communication through official channels and the inability to control misleading messages on social media channels
Letting the guard down after the first wave of contagion has died down. This is happening with Hong Kong; they are experiencing a second wave of infections.

How to Handle a Pandemic in project management?

Being a project management software company, we tried to look at different countries efforts to manage the COVID-19 coronavirus pandemic outbreak from the perspective of a leadership – project management. We came up with these eight tips or strategies to handle a critical project management assignment.

8 Tips for Managing a Critical Project

1. Assess project risks – Trust Experts

2. Plan ASAP once you identify the problem and the root cause

3. Prioritize focus problem area resolution based on the Impact Measurement

4. Use aggressive strategies to contain the problem locally to reduce the entire project getting off track

5. Ensure compliance of the project plan for the desired results

6. Use the right communication strategies

7. Use the right tools to measure the data on project problems, since timely measurement leads to early detection of the problems

8. Knowledge Management – Learning from the previous similar projects and what worked better for them

Call us now at +91 855 498 3315 to get help from Whizible Experts on Remote Working This blog is based on the information available on the WHO official website and news and articles available on the Internet on March 23, 2020. The resources used for reference are listed below. Resources used

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