Community strength is essential in times of crisis like the one experienced these days with the appearance of COVID-19. This article describes some socio-community strategies to reduce the risk of COVID-19 contagion in human settlements, and thus contribute to the guidelines issued by the various international organizations to combat this pandemic. Some simple and applicable strategies for this particular situation are described.

A community is defined as a geographical space where several family nuclei coexist and develop, which may or may not share common interests. The integration of all the members in a healthy and collaborative coexistence is essential to join efforts in times of any type of difficulty that affects the communities.

In this sense, COVID-19 has caused a deadly pandemic that has affected more than 130 countries on the planet, where regional, national and international organizations around the world have had to gather ideas and efforts to reduce the risk of contagion from this virus. But all of this is achieved if there is a well-defined community synergy for joint objectives (WHO, 2019).

The objective of this article was to present and promote simple ideas on socio-community strategies to combat COVID-19, which can be applied in any context where the coronavirus occurs.

This study was framed in the bibliographic design under the systematic review and of different collected and selected documents. The type of investigation corresponded to the documentary, with the inquiry into the information and data obtained in the different electronic repositories. The investigation contemplated logical and mental procedures of analysis, synthesis, deduction and induction (Palella and Martins, 2006).

Developing
For this document, I took as a reference the community intervention methodology proposed by Mori (2008). There are several articles and books published in this area, but the proposal of this Peruvian researcher is simple and adaptable to any circumstance, and is very pertinent to this type of current situation with COVID-19.

In any community intervention process, it must be comprehensive and dynamic; in which the subjects of the same actively participate in the transformation of their reality, based on their specific problems and this occurs in a specific physical-social space, called the “focus sector”. In this context, in order to tackle the problem with COVID-19, health promoters (doctors, nurses, educators, psychologists, social workers, among others) are essential to carry out in an organized way community interventions effectively (WHO, 2009).

The first step for the community approach consists of an initial approach to the community, through one of its spokespersons and/or social leaders, who are the representatives of neighborhood associations or community action boards (Figure 1). In this phase, the aim is to collect available information from the community (population density, patterns of social organization, unemployment employment, number of houses, means of subsistence, among others), to infer and identify possible problems and needs of community members.

The variables described above can indicate, in many cases, criteria of social vulnerability to the COVID-19 pandemic, since the number of inhabitants and the ways of survival are determining factors in learning about displacement habits, hygiene in the home, among others, that They can be modified through other behavioral paradigms that are beneficial to the community, or failing that, change certain community rules in order to implement more appropriate health and coexistence strategies to decrease the risk of COVID-19 infection (WHO, 2020).

Such information is gathered through direct observation and a structured interview with the community leader or other members of the community, who will provide as much information as possible to the researcher conducting the research.

In the second step of the community intervention, the researcher makes a tour of the popular sectors that the community encompasses, together with the community leader, who together call an extraordinary meeting with the rest of the community members for an approach Deeper, in order to relate the community-researcher binomial and explore the concerns, behavioral patterns, needs and identify and hierarchize the problems of the same, through a matrix of hierarchy of problems or any other instrument that allows to capture ideas and impressions of both the community subjects and the researcher (Figure 2).

Among the socio-community strategies to combat COVID-19, I propose the following:
Community broadcasting: This strategy allows information to reach the population through community radio with simple instruments such as: megaphones, microphones, sound plants, among others. No need for a professional studio or radio station (which if they exist in the community, are ideal for community service).

Community prevention campaigns: These are ideal to raise awareness in the community about hygienic measures to prevent COVID-19 infection. Such as: hand washing every three hours with soap and water, or failing that, applying alcohol with a minimum of 60% purity on hands and clothes, wearing face masks to carry out basic subsistence activities (buying food, visiting the doctor in case of presenting symptoms of COVID-19, going to work, among others).

Preventive community health centers: These are provisional sites for preventive care or medical consultation in the community. A hospital as such is not necessary, it can be a house of one of the inhabitants, or a specific site destined for medical observation in the case of a possible suspected case, and if necessary, the doctor refer the case to the hospital center of the region for evaluation and treatment.

Preventive educational activities at home: During mandatory and / or community isolation, it is important to strengthen anti-COVID-19 family education in children and adults. Good personal hygiene and physical exercise exercises can be performed, along with a balanced diet to maintain an immune system suitable for this type of circumstances.

COVID-19 is not a symbol of death or panic in society, it is a new challenge that we must assume and contribute from our homes and the entire community to face this pandemic. The strategies described here can help significantly. However, any other that may benefit the population can be applied, especially in those countries severely affected by this pandemic.