The challenge of a global pandemic
HowCrowded is working towards handling one
of the challenges that comes with the COVID-19
pandemic:
- Managing to keep distance to other people, in
order to prevent the virus to spread.
Today’s global pandemic has taught us many things.
For instance, it's made us more aware to wash our hands, and perhaps
most importantly, it's learned us the importance of practicing social distancing.
WHO states that to keep yourself and others
safe from COVID-19, it’s important to keep a distance
of at least one meter from others, and an even greater
distance indoors; the further away, the better (reference 3).
However, in some situations, it's hard maintaining
distance to other people. Doing necessary chores, such
as going to the grocery store, can make it difficult to keep
distance to the other shoppers if the store is crowded. This is also a big challenge for
other indoor spaces that are open to the public. They need
regulations to ensure that there are not too many people
inside the area at the same time: be it a library, grocery
store, or a gym.
The challenge illustrated
These days many stores and other public spaces have a display of how many people are allowed into the store, occasionally accompanied by member of staff that checks the numbers. However, this is often only displayed by a simple note outside. For example for bigger grocery stores where the number might be up to 50 people it is difficult to see how many people are actually in the store. This put both the customer and the organization’s staff at risk of having too many people inside the same space at the same time.
Ensure healthy lives and promote well being for all at all ages
HowCrowded’s work is inspired by the UN’s sustainable goal number 3:
Ensuring healthy lives and promote well-being for all at all ages (reference 1).
The UN reports that the implications from the pandemic could potentially
set back decades of improvement in healthcare and they are expecting hundred
of thousands additional under-5 deaths (reference 2).
Already, childhood immunization programmes in around 70 countries have been
interrupted (reference 2). With other words, the pandemic is threatening
the health outcomes and could cause massive setbacks to the overall health
services provided in the world.
The UN calls out for comprehensive health strategies and increased
spending on health systems (reference 2).
