COVID-19 Vulnerabilities, Actions, and Perceptions of Urban and Rural Communities of Rawalpindi, Pakistan

Abstract

COVID-19 has become one of the most challenging global pandemics since December 2019 and since then it has become a Public Health Emergency (PHEIC) as declared by WHO. COVID-19 has spread in urban and rural areas, and its impacts vary among urban and rural communities. Hence it is significant to recognize the underlying factors that exacerbate the risks of Covid-19 in urban and rural communities. The research aims to assess the multidimensional pandemic vulnerability of urban and rural communities, measure socio-economic impacts, identify risk perception between urban and rural communities and suggest suitable strategies for effective pandemic risk reduction. It is based on a structured questionnaire survey at the household level with 500 samples, 250 for urban and 250 for rural communities of Rawalpindi District. The sampling technique is random/convenient sampling. The questionnaire was designed based on selected indicators extracted from a literature review of published research works. Index-based approach, statistical tests, descriptive statistics, and mapping techniques have been used for data analysis and to depict the results. This study has found that significant difference exists in all the three dimensions of vulnerability, social-economic and infrastructural, among urban and rural communities. However, no significant variation is found in the overall vulnerability of both communities. There was a significant difference in all four dimensions of COVID-19 risk perception between urban and rural communities. The overall risk perception of urban communities is higher than rural communities. The study highlights various dimensions of vulnerability and risk perception in urban and rural communities, a better understanding of underlying factors affecting vulnerability and risk perception and their relationship will assist decision-makers, health authorities, and disaster managers in developing efficient programs/policies and mitigation/preparedness measures to address pandemics in a better way.