Effectiveness of the Mechanism for Surveillance, Prevention and Control of Coronavirus Disease 2019 by the Provincial Communicable Disease Committee, Ang Thong Province

Abstract

 This research aimed to develop mechanisms and study the effectiveness of the mechanisms for driving surveillance, prevention and control of coronavirus disease 2019 by Ang Thong Provincial Communicable Disease Committee.  It was conducted, between February 2020 and March 2021. The key informants were members of Provincial Communicable Disease Committee, comprising of the head provincial government units, heads of district government, district communicable disease control officers, directors of sub-district health promoting hospitals, community leaders, and village health volunteers. The study samples also include workers and customers of some selected establishments at risk of spreading the disease, and the general population. The research process was divided into 3 steps as follows: (1) studying the current incidence, the management problem of surveillance, prevention and control of the coronavirus disease 2019 in Ang Thong Province (2) developing the mechanisms to drive the surveillance, prevention and control of the coronavirus disease 2019 by the Provincial Communicable Disease Committee and (3) assessing the effectiveness of the mechanisms to drive the surveillance, prevention and control of the coronavirus disease 2019 by the Provincial Communicable Disease Committee. Data were collected by surveys, observations, interviews, group discussions and the lesson learned and were analyzed by using content summary, interpretation, and content analysis. It was found that the mechanisms for driving the surveillance, prevention and control of the coronavirus disease 2019 by Ang Thong Provincial Communicable Disease Committee were quite effective. There were altogether 5 main mechanisms, namely (1) integration of all partnership cooperation, (2) resource management, (3) implementation of measures, (4) risk communication and public relations, and (5) data management. There was a structure linking with all levels,  provincial, district, sub-district and village. This had resulted in the outcomes that ware in line with the 2 provincial objectives : (1) absent of any confirmed case of coronavirus 2019 in Ang Thong province in the first wave, (2) capability to control the spread of coronavirus disease 2019 within a period of 27 days of the new wave of the outbreaks.