COVID-19: UFRN Center creates Action Plan for vulnerable territories in Greater Natal

By Julio Rocha
 
The  Natal Center of the Observatory of the Metropolises based at the Center for Human Sciences, Letters and Arts (CCHLA/UFRN), in line with the initiatives of the other Centers at national level, developed the “Action Plan to combat COVID-19 in Territories in a Situation of Vulnerability in Natal and its Metropolitan Region”, aiming to strengthen government and civil society actions to combat the coronavirus, mainly in popular territories in a situation of social vulnerability.
 
Coordinated by professor from the Department of Public Policy, Maria do Livramento Miranda Clementino, stated that the study developed aims to prevent a catastrophe in the most vulnerable population by helping municipal and state managers.
 
"To face this situation, the first step is to recognize that it requires the mobilization of new ways of acting and thinking, and higher levels of public responsibility. And this directly challenges public authorities, especially the municipal authorities, mainly responsible for basic and state care actions, responsible for medium and high complexity care. In defense of life and a minimum of social security, a reformulation with expansion in the fight against Covid-19 is imperative, especially in territories in situations of social vulnerability that are most subject to the consequences and risks arising from the pandemic. In other words, a greater catastrophe to be avoided”, highlighted the professor.
 
With this purpose and collaborative spirit, the Natal Center of the Observatório das Metrópole mobilized its human, research and institutional resources such as the Forum for the Right to the City and formulated suggestions for tackling the pandemic in the popular territories of Natal and its region in the form of a plan.
 
"We identify these popular territories and structure a set of public and civil responsibility actions in four dimensions: preventive; assistance; coordination and social support and articulation actions; evaluation and monitoring. This is yet another collaboration by UFRN, in the fight against and prevention of COVID-19", explained the coordinator.
 
Plan Dimensions
 
Preventive: The first dimension of this Plan brings together the following aspects: monitoring places where the population has difficulty accessing water; bringing health care closer to populations in socially vulnerable territories; legal protection of land ownership, housing and the right to adequate sanitary conditions; health communication, distribution of masks, isolation of individuals belonging to vulnerable groups, and attention to groups potentially spreading the disease.
 
Service: Create spaces for exclusive care for individuals suspected of having Covid-19, as well as exclusive spaces in vulnerable territories for the quarantine of patients who do not need to be hospitalized, but need to be isolated from family and neighbors. Furthermore, attention is also needed to bring health care closer to the populations of these territories and to the working conditions of basic health units, as it is there that the social and health problem is exploding in all its drama.
 
Coordination and social support actions: Coordination of prevention and care actions, this coordination will also make it possible to rationalize social support resources, access to income, basic food baskets and other vital inputs such as masks, water, hygiene materials.
 
Articulation, evaluation and monitoring: Identify and systematize the database and actions that are being developed by the State Government, Municipalities, educational institutions and social organizations, in order to contain and/or minimize the impacts of the pandemic in territories in vulnerable situations, aiming to formulate strategies to face the problem and make decisions.
 
(2020-05-29) Action Plan – Version F.