Emergency and response planning for healthcare workers to manage COVID-19 pandemic situation.

The Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) was first detected in December 2019 in Wuhan, China and despite drastic measures by the Chinese authority in enforcing a "lockdown" in Wuhan, the virus had since spread to a growing number of countries worldwide - including Malaysia. The World Health Organization (WHO) declared the outbreak of COVID-19 a pandemic on 11 March 2020. The Malaysian Government announced the restricted activities order known as the Movement Control Order (MCO) nationwide under the Prevention and Control of Infectious Diseases Act 1988 (Amendment) Regulation 2020 from 18 March 2020 to 31 March 2020. With the pandemic still spreading at an alarming rate, hospitals and healthcare workers were overburdened to cope with the sudden influx of large numbers of COVID-19 patients. It was reported that the healthcare workers were ill-equipped with personal protective equipment (PPE) and ventilators to treat the COVIC-19 patients, thus exposing and putting them at risk of infection or losing their lives. The purpose of this study is to provide an insight into the current situation of the ERP for Healthcare Workers. Fortifying a framework for addressing the six stages of ERP will prepare and protect the healthcare workers in performing their duties systematically and address issues and concerns faced by the healthcare workers on the lack of PPE and medical support for COVID-19 treatment. As there is a lack of studies on the improvement of ERP for hospitals, this proposed framework can lead to further research on strengthening the existing ERP for healthcare workers in public hospitals to counter future influenza outbreaks. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]
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