Rescuing Citizens and Orienting Their Behaviour

The most obvious but far from easy challenge of any emergency, especially in its initial phase, is rescuing citizens and orienting their behaviour in order to limit the scope of the disaster or the crisis. During the pandemic, a huge number of policies were implemented at the local and regional levels to offer first aid to the population and to help the health-care systems handle the ongoing situation. The regional health departments mainly intervened by drawing up guidelines on procedures to prevent the spread of the infection and to manage the COVID-19 patients. Local Health Authorities and hospitals were the frontline workers in this emergency. In Lombardy, entire local units of regional health agencies were converted to support and help health personnel, while the normal planning and control functions were temporarily suspended. The initiatives of the local governments to support citizens in the various territories were concentrated on home services (the distribution of food to the poorest households, support services for the elderly, the distribution of medicines, etc.).