Journal of Infectious Diseases and Medicine

The pandemic condition due to COVID-19 has been increasing rapidly and led the world to health emergency. Preparedness planning is essential from every aspect individuals, community and the hospital in order to respond effectively to the outbreak. The objective of the study is to assess the emergency preparedness and response for corona virus disease in hospitals of Kaski district.

A cross sectional descriptive research design was used to conduct the study in all the hospitals of Kaski district. The information were collected from the Hospital administrators using a semi-structured interview schedule representing two points of time i.e., firstly when lockdown came into effect (end of March, 2020) and secondly during the study time (November-December 2020) of the research.

During initiation of lockdown, majority of the hospitals (74.1%) reported absence of core team, 37% had external and internal contact points, 29.6% had procumbent and stock management, 22.2% had proper staff management, 40.7% had appropriate laboratory management, and 14.8% had given trainings to staffs. After about seven months duration 55.6% had core team, 48.1% had external contact points,66.7% had stock and material managements well as good triage, first contact and prioritization of patient, 70.4% had proper hand hygiene, PPE and Waste management .But the hospitals are at halt regarding post-mortem care in both phase of time.

The study shows that hospitals are in a step of improving the preparedness and response to tackle the increasing burden. However, it is Inadequate and the progress is not satisfactory. As the cases of Covid-19 are increasing rapidly the hospitals need establish quick response and effective preparedness plan for appropriate management.