The Spanish city of Gijon informs its people via #GijonSeCedaEnCasa – Gijon stays home – about the corona situation. Every day, mayor Ana González Rodríguez produces a video statement which is shared via social media. Read more (in Spanish)
Nice – Drone informs people to follow containment rules
The city of Nice has been using a drone to fly over the city centre and the main roads to enforce the containment measures. Equipped with a loudspeaker, the drone repeats two pre-recorded messages: “Travel is prohibited except by exception” and “Please respect safety distances”. Read more (in French) and watch a video here and read about the public reactions here (in French)
Braga – Partnering up with Shenyang
The Municipality of Braga will receive 10,000 disposable medical masks and 500 individual protection medical kits from the Chinese city of Shenyang. The two cities have a friendship agreement and want to become twin cities. Shenyang has also offered to share experiences regarding the fight against the corona virus and the management of crisis situations. Read more (in Portuguese)
Munich – Don’t stop creativity
To support artists and other creative workers, Kreative Deutschland together with some funding institutions, such as the Team of Excellence for the Culture and Creative Industries of the City of Munich, have initiated the campaign ‘Don’t stop creativity’, to share information about funding opportunities as well as inspirational ideas. Creative examples are also published on a website, such as a fashion crowdfunding project for home office wear. Read more
Bratislava – Cartoon communication on corona
The city of Bratislava has created a set of simple drawings that highlight key measures to fight the corona outbreak for citizens. The mayor commissioned a famous local cartoonist to draw a poster to inform citizens that has been distributed online and through posters across the city.
Bratislava offers to share the material with any city that needs such an easy to understand material – just send an email to inovacie@bratislava.sk. You can read more here
Barcelona – Maintaining public contracts to protect jobs
Service providers for the city of Barcelona will continue to be paid even if the execution of their services is suspended. Under the current state of emergency, those contracts remain valid. Read more
Pau – Home-meal service by the municipality
Municipal kitchens prepare meals for people who cannot go shopping : elderly, isolated, disabled, or single women with dependent children. These meals are delivered by employees of the city of Pau, usually working in municipal departments which are now closed, as swimming pools. The city has also opened a telephone hotline for psychological support where even politicians take turns to answer the calls. Read more here (in French)
London – Public transport services for critical workers
London’s public transport authority is curtailing services by stopping some night services, closing stations and urging Londoners not to use public transport services unnecessarily. The services that remain open are to support the city’s critical workers, according to the mayor.
Read more here
Berlin – Rapid response strategy includes new hospital
The Berlin city government will build a new hospital for up to 1,000 voronavirus patients. Other measures being taken include reducing metro services, and updating its crisis response strategy.
The updated strategy aims to support people and businesses through offering measures such as tax relief for companies struggling with liquidity, or covering loss of earnings for cancelled events or when staff are quarantined.
Read more here
Groningen – Emergency shelter for new arrivals
Foreign nationals arriving in the Netherlands no longer have access to asylum procedures. Now, there will be an emergency shelter established in the city of Groningen – mainly driven from the national level, but with support from the Municipality of Het Hogeland.
Read more here
Porto – Securing crucial supplies
Building on good relations with its twinned cities in China, the Porto City Council has secured supplies of new ventilators.
In another partnership, with a local company, the City Council has agreed to start immediate production of personal protective masks.
Bari – Drone patrol
In Bari, the municipal administration has deployed the remotely piloted aircraft supplied to the local police to verify that there are no gatherings.
Read more here
Tallinn offers free kindergartens
With all municipal kindergatens still running, despite schools being closed, the Tallinn City Government has used emergency measures to enact changes in the organisation of kndergartens, giving more parents an opportunity to continue working.
Read more here
Brussels – New production chain for protective masks
A local company and a network of volunteers are helping the Brussels Capital Region produce at least 100,000 face masks for use mainly in nursing homes, the homeless sector and home help and care services. The masks are subject to quality control measures before being made available to the Brussels government.
Read more here
EU – Coronavirus Response Investment Initiative
European Commissioners Elisa Ferreira, responsible for Cohesion and Reforms; and Nicolas Schmit responsible for Jobs and Social Rights have sent letters to all the EU countries to inform them on the individual support they can receive under the Coronavirus Response Investment Initiative.
The letters, with individual country information are available here
Vilnius – Telephone conversations with seniors in isolation
In Vilnius a team of staff and volunteers speak to hundreds of seniors’ each day. Although this service has been in operation for four years, it is recently being used a lot more.
Read more here
Nantes – Food aid for people in need
Nantes Metropole opens more food distribution centres for associations and volunteers to provide food assistance to people in need. Read more here (in French)
Vienna – A new fund to help small and medium sized businesses
The municipality of Vienna, alongside Vienna Chamber of Commerce, is setting aside €35 million to allow a much quicker municipal response to changing business situations than normal legislation would allow. The largest portion of these funds will be used to help prop up companies of 10 employees or less when they suffer a decline in turnover of more than 50%.
Read more here
Krakow – Free psychological consultations over the phone
While many medical appointments are being cancelled due to the requisition of health workers for the management of the crisis, patients often still need support. In particular, the situation can be hard to manage in terms of mental health. Krakow has therefore decided to open free support through phone consultations.
Read more here
Vienna – Public housing measures
Wiener Wohnen, the public housing authority, has called for residents of municipal buildings to be disciplined and considerate of current government measures. Non-compliance with certain measures, such as the closure of playgrounds, can be punishable by the police.
Cluj-Napoca – Moving Council sessions online
The city council is considering moving local council sessions online, while also ensuring the possibility for citizens to attend via an online platform.
Read more here
South Korea – Tracking people’s movement with new technologies
When a person is diagnosed with COVID-19 in South Korea, the government makes use of new technologies through GPS tracking, tracing credit card histories, and telephone records to see where a particular person has been. This comes alongside other measures such as banning all public gatherings. Of course, European concerns for privacy rights means that this kind of activity would be, at the least, highly controversial in Europe.
Read more about the European debate on privacy here and here
Belgium – Distilleries produce sanitiser
Did you know, some distilleries in Belgium are switching from making alcoholic drinks to manufacturing alcohol for pharmacists to prepare their own hand sanitiser. Read more here.
Brussels – 15 places for homeless people
To avoid contamination in the winter shelters which can welcome up to 1,750 people every day, Brussels Capital Region, alongside the Red Cross, opened 15 smaller centres for homeless people as the city moves into a containment period. In addition, a mobile unit with medical staff has been set up, in order to allow for safe passage to hospitals, and to bring homeless people to these new centres.
Read more here
Madrid – Free parking
Madrid city council has suspended parking fees and closed down its bike sharing scheme. The offer of free parking had already been in operation in areas surrounding hospitals for a few days, in order to make access easier for staff and patients, but has now been extended throughout the city.
Read more here
Madrid – 150 beds for homeless people
Madrid city council is offering 150 beds for homeless people who do not show symptoms of the virus. Meanwhile, homeless people who do show symptons can go to an emergency centre for asylum seekers, where they will receive adequate health care.
Read more here
Porto – Special measures for waste collection
To stop the spread of contagion, the city’s employees are no longer permitted to enter people’s home when picking up specialist waste, such as out of use items, and employees can only pick up bagged items.
In addition, the city has invested in disinfecting street containers where waste is collected.
Read more here
Porto – Drive-thru centre for COVID-19 screening
The centre, available only for those with prior appointments, aims to test people outside of hospitals in order to alleviate the expected influx of people.
Read more here
Porto – 278 hotel rooms and apartments available to medical personnel
Rooms are being offered at hotels and other local accommodation, in coordination with the Porto City Hall, to ensure that medical staff who are concerned for the risk of contagion to their families, have an alternative space to stay.
Read more here
Milan – Creating a coordination centre for all over 65s services
The municipality of Milan has set up an operational base to organise the transport of goods (food, medicines or other basic necessities) and provide other support services for the over 65, as well as other people who have other chronic conditions or are immunocompromised that have been ordered to stay at home.
A parallel action undertaken by the city includes the creation of seven food hubs for distribution to those unable to leave their home, and the training of 150 volunteers.
London – Enhanced cleaning on public transport
London’s public transport company has committed to a new cleaning regime for its metro and bus network. This includes ensuring that all regularly touched areas, such as poles on buses, are wiped down every day with a strong disinfectant. Other new concepts include testing of a new cleaning agent that could potentially offer 30 days’ worth of viral protection, and testing a hygiene back-pack that would allow for this new disinfectant to be sprayed safely and quickly across the network.
Read more here
In a separate advice here London Mayor, Sadiq Khan, has warned that London’s transport network foresees operating a weekend style service during the week, meaning less frequent travel options.
Global – Lessons from around the world
How prepared for pandemic are different cities globally?
Cities such as Taipei, Singapore and Hangzhou based their response on knowledge gained from dealing with previous epidemics and rapidly put in place measures such as isolation and social distancing, clear communication efforts and proactive surveillance – a difficult prospect for many Western cities.
Authorities in Singapore, for example, acted very quickly to trace back suspected contacts of the first patients, and offer widespread and freely available testing, with capacity to test more than 2,000 people a day. Furthermore, around 5,000 people – mainly close contacts of patients – have been isolated.