Table 2.

Categorization of risk-reducing strategies for COVID-19 pandemic.

Type of measures/ barriers	Stage and risk reduction strategies	Type of risk reduction strategies	Nature and implementation of the risk reduction strategy	Remarks
Preventive	Pre-pandemic	Inherent	–	Extremely difficult to implement. Many known mammals play a vital role in human life but act as potential virus sources and/or carriers. For instance,
				MARBURG 1967 (bat)
				EBOLA 1976 (bat)
				SARS 2002 (bat)
				SARS 2012- (bat)
				SARS-CoV-2 2019 (presuming bat) MERS 2010 - (Camels)
				H5N1 (Bird flue)
				2003- (Chicken)
				H7N9 (Bird flue) 2013- (Chicken)
	•Avoid direct contact/ interaction/ handling animals
	During-pandemic:	Inherent	Administrative recommendation that requires to be practiced by individuals and organizations	Effective mechanisms to prevent a pandemic. However, all individuals and operations cannot go online. Besides, there is a possibility of defaulters depending upon the level of administrative action (recommendation, requirement, and its enforcement)
	•Avoid physical interaction with others •Activate work from home strategy and home delivery services
	During Pandemic:	Active	Administrative recommendation that requires to be practiced at individual and community level	Effective mechanism in minimizing the pandemic impacts. However, it is challenging to enforce and monitor enforcement. They incur significant economic loss
	•Enforcing lockdown •School and business closures •Restricting large gatherings •Frequent hand washing/sanitizing/ refrain from face touching
	•Social distancing	Inherent
	Avoiding crowded
	places/ public transport
	During Pandemic:	Inherent	Administrative recommendation that requires to be followed by individuals	The most effective strategy. It provides the fastest way to minimize the pandemic impact provided Vaccine is available and accessible to all.
	•Vaccination
	During Pandemic:	Passive	Engineering	An effective strategy to minimize the disease spread. However, it requires proper planning and execution.
	•Redesign/installation of safety layers at the interactive systems, e.g., shield at cash and other counters
	During Pandemic:	Procedural	Administrative recommendation that requires to be practiced at individual and community level	The efficiency of the strategy is dependent on individuals to follow the best practices.
	•Self-isolation •Wearing a mask/ PPE •Good Hygiene practices •Surface Cleaning
	During Pandemic:	Procedural	Administrative	It requires significant resources to enforce the measures.
	•Contact Tracing •Rapid Testing •Awareness about the situation and safe handling procedures •Peer pressure and police intervention for following procedures •Special attention and guidelines for the vulnerable groups
	During Pandemic:	Passive	Achieved through herd protection, genetics or use of diets to strengthen the immune system.	This is an effective passive strategy; however, it is highly variant depending upon the individual’s immune system.
	•Immunity
Mitigative	During Pandemic:	Procedural	Administrative	It requires decisions to activate the strategies effectively and mobilize the resources.
	•Quarantine of exposed cases •Treatment •Extending healthcare systems/ hospitals/ workers/antidotes
				Requires long-term planning The prevalent outbreak can be used to upgrade the healthcare systems to respond well in future outbreaks.