With the rapid spread of COVID-19 across the globe continuing causing countries to declare a state of national emergency whilst they manage the containment of the virus within their borders, people are experiencing disruption to their everyday lives.
This disruption to how we work, how we go about our everyday tasks, and how our communities function will continue and will substantially escalate further. For the vast majority of people, the disruption faced so far is only the start, we will see more aggressive tactics applied by Governments in their attempts to bring this virus under control, these measures will require a dramatic shift in how we go about our everyday lives.
At a national level, Governments are facing the challenges of an ever more connected world
The latest figures worldwide show that there are 142,539 confirmed COVID-19 cases, and 5,393 deaths related to the virus. These figures will grow substantially, with some countries seeing their numbers of those infected double on a near-daily basis.
Most countries now have a national plan in place with most taking a multi-sectoral approach. With many countries now declaring a state of emergency, governments are attempting to quickly put in place the measures in their respective plans – what we are seeing at the moment are countries restricting entry to their borders from ‘high risk’ countries, enforced quarantine measures being applied, some are restricting the movement of its citizens, and others are battling to ensure their health systems are equipped to deal with the substantial rise in those requiring hospitalization with ventilators and other specialized equipment.
From a communications perspective, governments are working hard to communicate with their citizens and residents to set out the action they are taking. The aim will be to reassure the public that there is a plan to manage the public health crisis, prepare them for a worsening situation, and set out practical ways to encourage sensible preventative behaviors such as hand washing for 20 seconds.
This requires a carefully calibrated approach to balancing reassurance messaging with those of forewarning of worse to come, to prepare people for the severity of potential restrictive changes that most likely will be required for a great number of people. This balancing act if wrongly applied, can generate fear leading to people ignoring the advice with their actions leading to actually worsening the outbreak.
In the UK, Prime Minister Boris Johnson has set out to the UK population the severity of this virus outbreak, “We have all got to be clear, this is the worst public health crisis for a generation’, “it is going to spread further and I must level with you, I must level with the British public: many more families are going to lose loved ones before their time.”
This tone is similar in nature to that of other leaders such as French President Macron who stated in a televised address that COVID-19 "is one of the most serious health crises France has ever faced."
Government communicators striving hard to manage news cycles and reach the public in a fast-changing environment.
The challenge for government communicators will be maintaining the momentum of trying to control the narrative of the measures being taken by their governments whilst facing rapid changes to the environment – at times with such a fast-moving situation, the message that was right one day might be completely different the next. The stakes are high, a slip up can cause news cycles to question the government’s overall strategy, and cause confusion with the population that is consuming the news.
Therefore, a clear focus on the communications infrastructure in place to support and enable communicators to carry out their roles is important. Structures need to be put in place and run smoothly to ensure fast-changing messaging, announcements and rapidly rising infection and subsequent mortality rates are well managed and executed with clarity.
With more channels than ever before, digital teams will be working hard to push out this content and messaging across a raft of digital and social channels to reach the general population.
The daily ‘battle rhythm’ will be set for managing all of this along with the ever-changing milestones of daily infection and mortality rates, new legislative measures prepared and then coming into force, proactive and reactive stances to stakeholders who themselves will be pushing out statements to the media, and at the same time, support Ministers and Chief Medical Officers to navigate the news cycle demand for more news, statements, and reaction to events.
These are testing times. They are highly challenging and mistakes will happen. The stakes are vitally important, lives can and will be saved from the good work of government communicators being successful in communicating with the public both directly and indirectly through the media and challenging any misinformation spreading to ensure the public receive trusted advice from trusted sources that can make a real difference.
Manara Global and COVID-19: How we can help
At Manara Global, we can help organizations with their communications to prepare for, manage and emerge from an outbreak impacting their organization, people and any disruption to services wherever they are in the world. Our Founders have substantial experience in managing crisis situations at both national and international level including from the H1N1 flu pandemic.
Our three-part program, Prepare - Manage - Emerge, is focused on providing rapid counsel to companies to help them navigate through the path ahead step by step with practical measures to put into place. More detail on our three-part program can be found here: https://www.manaraglobal.com/in-focus-news/2020/2/28/coronavirus-prepare-manage-emerge