Disaster Management Under the National Preparedness Strategy (2017-2021): A Case Study of Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) in Mueng District, Nakhon Ratchasima Province

Abstract

The purposes of this study were to 1) to study the disaster management level under the National Preparedness Strategy (2017-2021) and 2) to propose guidelines for disaster management development under the National Preparedness Strategy (2017-2021). The study used quantitative research in administering a questionnaire to a sample totaling 304 persons in 3 categories 1) 104 personnel of local administrative organizations, including: the Chief Administrator of the Local Municipality and Administrative Organization, disaster prevention and mitigation officers and public health and environment officers, 2) 60 personnel, including the Director of Health Promoting Hospital and nursing and public health professional, 3) 140 community representatives. The data was analyzed by using descriptive statistics.  The findings indicated that 1) overall, the level of disaster management under the National Preparedness Strategy (2017-2021) was very high (  = 4.06, S.D. = 0.52). Of the various of its aspects, the highest score was in the development of potentials of the preparedness system (  = 4.15, S.D. = 0.54) followed in descending order by the promotion of cooperation in preparedness (  = 4.06, S.D. = 0.60), the management of the integrated plan (  = 4.02, S.D. = 0.66) and the capacity building all sectors at (  = 3.89, S.D. = 0.43), 2) the disaster management development guidelines under the National Preparedness Strategy (2017-2021) included the capacity building of all sectors, consisting of building the potentials of local government organizations, of personnel in sub-district health promoting hospitals, of communities, of village health volunteers and of the people.