Role of the Built Environment in the Recovery From COVID-19: Evidence From a GIS-Based Natural Experiment on the City Blocks in Wuhan, China

The built environment closely relates to the development of COVID-19 and post-disaster recovery. Nevertheless, few studies examine its impacts on the recovery stage and corresponding urban development strategies. This study examines the built environment's role in Wuhan's recovery at the city block level through a natural experiment. We first aggregated eight built environmental characteristics (BECs) of 192 city blocks from the perspectives of density, infrastructure supply, and socioeconomic environment;then, the BECs were associated with the recovery rates at the same city blocks, based on the public "COVID-19-free" reports of about 7,100 communities over the recovery stages. The results showed that three BECs, i.e., "number of nearby designated hospitals," "green ratio," and "housing price" had significant associations with Wuhan's recovery when the strict control measures were implemented. At the first time of reporting, more significant associations were also found with "average building age," "neighborhood facility development level," and "facility management level." In contrast, no associations were found for "controlled residential land-use intensity" and "plot ratio" throughout the stages. The findings from Wuhan's recovery pinpointing evidence with implications in future smart and resilient urban development are as follows: the accessibility of hospitals should be comprehensive in general;and the average housing price of a city block can reflect its post-disaster recoverability compared to that of the other blocks.

[Expanding the pandemic influenza preparedness framework to the epidemic of COVID-19].

On March 11, 2020, WHO officially declared that COVID-19 had become Pandemic. As of March 31, the epidemic had affected more than 178 countries and regions, with more than 780 000 confirmed cases. The Pandemic Influenza Preparedness Framework for the sharing of influenza viruses and access to vaccines and other benefits (the 'PIP Framework' or 'Framework') is an international arrangement adopted by the World Health Organization in May 2011 to improve global pandemic influenza preparedness and response. Since the transmission route and transmission capacity of COVID-19 are similar to that of influenza A (H1N1) in 2009, which conforms to the basic elements of "human pandemic", and the epidemic scale has exceeded that of influenza A (H1N1)， it is probable to incorporate COVID-19 epidemic response into PIPF, and at the same time to verify and improve PIPF in practice. It is recommended that WHO, other international organizations and relevant countries make full use of the PIPF system to respond to the epidemic and better coordinate national actions at the global level. At the same time, China should also make the planning and deploy of domestic epidemic prevention and control and international epidemic cooperation under the framework.

The hospital response to covid-19 in China

The origin of the COVID-19 pandemic was in Wuhan, China. The sudden rise in cases was met with strict isolation and treatment measures. The uniqueness of the Chinese health care system and hospital response may have been instrumental in the early plateauing of cases and deaths.