Events

16 May 2020|Noida | Amity University, Noida

Safety Measures against COVID-19 discussed during Webinar at Amity University

 

A webinar on ‘Accelerating Behaviour Change among Youth for fight against COVID-19’ was conducted by Prof Sanjay Singh, Communication for Development Specialist, UNICEF. He talked at length about COVID-19 the disease; the prevention and safe practices; safe practices for community and homes; the sensitive practices; stigma and discrimination and the role of the youth. Prof Singh shared about the basic symptoms and the current situation of COVID-19 in the country. “Symptoms of COVID-19 in India are fever and cough and/or shortness of breath. Looking at the gender profile, male confirmed cases is 76% while females formed 24% of the confirmed COVID cases in the country,” stated Prof. Singh. Talking about the measures to contain the infection, Prof. Singh talked about lockdown; personal safety; physical distancing; contact tracing; cluster containment and disinfecting. Demonstration was also given about mask management and about home quarantine & home care. Prof. Singh also averred how three-layered masks should be used by health care providers. For the common man, a re-usable face cover provides equal protection from getting the infection.

Dr. Sameer Pawar, Nutrition Specialist at UNICEF talked about the essential health services during and post lockdown. “Elderly people with pre conditions, pregnant women and children need to be especially protected against COVID-19,” shared Dr. Pawar.

A lecture by Dr, Ajit Pathak, National President, Public Relations Society of India, Delhiwas delivered on the topic, ‘Building Trust with effective Public Relations’. Dr. Pathak shared that when one party is willing to rely on the actions of another party it is considered as trust.

“All human actions are based on trust. Trust is a measure of belief in the honesty, fairness or benevolence of the another party and can be more than a relationship of reliance. Society needs trust because it increasingly finds itself operating at the edge between confidence in what is known from everyday experience and contingency of new possibilities. Disbelief and lack of trust paralyze all our actions. Image plays pivotal role in building your perception and trust. Public Relations is a sustained, planned and deliberated on truth to protect right image of the origination. Public Relations is a decision making management practice tasked with building relationships and interests between organizations and their publics based on the delivery of information through trusted and ethical communication methods,” averred Dr. Pathak.

He also shared that public relations is two way communication and one who is working for public relation must know their media very well. “The PR Person must have good communication skill; be an effective writer; truthful; knowledgeable; social scientist and a media expert. PR helps in positive attraction to professional personnel, better employee relations. If any organization has good image they attract good skilled people and every industry wants good people,” said Dr. Pathak.

Talking about the basic challenges being faced by PR today, Dr. Pathak shared that  media being dealt with is now very knowledgeable and can go to the competitor to check what is happening at their end. He also stressed that all management communication should aim to build trust and drive results.