A COVID-19 Lockdown Tabletop Exercise in New Taipei City, Taiwan

Abstract

Objectives: This exercise aimed to validate New Taipei City’s strategic plan for a city lockdown in response to COVID-19. The main goal of all solutions was the principle of “reducing citizen activity and strengthening government control”. Methods: We created a suitable exercise, and creating 15 hypothetical situations for three stages. All participating units designed and proposed policy plans and execution protocols according to each situation. Results: In the course of the exercise, many existing policies and execution protocols were validated to address. Situations occurring in Stage 1, when the epidemic was spreading to the point of lockdown preparations, approaches to curb the continued spread of the epidemic in Stage 2, and returning to work after the epidemic is controlled and lockdown is lifted in Stage 3. Twenty response units participated in the exercise. Although favourable outcomes were obtained, the evaluators provided comments suggesting further improvements. Conclusions: Our exercise demonstrated a successful example to help policy making and revision in a large city over 4 million population during COVID-19 pandemic. It also enhanced participants’ subject knowledge and familiarity with the implementation of a city lockdown. For locations intending to go into lockdown, similar tabletop exercises are an effective verification option.

Looking Ahead in the Rearview Mirror: During Action Review and Tabletop (DART) to Strengthen Health Emergency Readiness and Resiliency

“…Many TTXs, however, do not always provide different scenarios for each role to see how and if information from each scenario is shared among the unique sectors. [8][9][10]20 Role-based exercises provide not only a way to review performance by response sector and functional role (i.e., epidemiology and risk communications) but also to review communication and coordination among roles. 25 Both are critical capabilities in response.…”

“…This approach allows participants to understand how current plans ensure an effective, timely response and to identify areas for improving readiness in advance of a crisis. 7 For example, COVID-19 TTXs have been conducted in many countries to inform vaccine deployment, 8 assess the impact of lockdown measures, 9 support continuity of operations of schools and businesses, and address cybersecurity. [10][11][12][13] Often, the After Action Review (AAR), which summarizes the TTX findings, is conducted soon after the TTX by an external evaluator.…”

Review of Israel’s action and response during the COVID-19 pandemic and tabletop exercise for the evaluation of readiness and resilience—lessons learned 2020–2021

“…To understand how well prepared a country will be for future health emergency scenarios, tabletop exercises (TTXs) bring response organizations together to prospectively identify strengths and gaps in readiness (13). Knowledge learned through After Action reviews of real-life and TTXs have been used to update planning documents and improve response to COVID-19-even as events are unfolding (14)(15)(16)(17). There are advantages of conducting evaluations using participatory methodologies, mainly ensuring that those directly involved in response lead in its evaluation and in identifying appropriate solutions to benefit the community involved (18,19).…”

The Study of Alternative Fire Commanders’ Training Program during the COVID-19 Pandemic Situation in New Taipei City, Taiwan

“…With the more contagious SARS-CoV-2 Alpha variant [ 16 ] introduced to the community, May to June 2021 was the peak period of the COVID-19 epidemic in Taiwan [ 17 ]. New Taipei City has the largest number of confirmed cases—a total of 6930, accounting for 47.5% of the local cases in Taiwan (statistics until 30 October 2021) [ 18 ]. Prior to this, the New Taipei City Government conducted a tabletop exercise [ 19 ] of the urban blockade strategic plan for COVID-19 to prepare for the blockade.…”