Urban public health emergencies and the COVID-19 pandemic. Part 1: Social and spatial inequalities in the COVID-city.

COVID-19 has had unprecedented impacts on urban life on a global scale, representing the worst pandemic in living memory. In this introduction to the first of two parts of a Special Issue on urban public health emergencies, we suggest that the COVID-19 outbreak, and associated attempts to manage the pandemic, reproduced and ultimately exacerbated the social and spatial divides that striate the contemporary city. Here, we draw on evidence from the papers in Part 1 of the Special Issue to summarise the uneven urban geographies of COVID-19 evident at the inter- and intra-urban level, emphasising the particular vulnerabilities and risks borne by racialised workers who found it difficult to practise social distancing in either their home or working life. Considering the interplay of environmental, social and biological factors that conspired to create hotspots of COVID-19 infection, and the way these are connected to the racialised capitalism that underpins contemporary urban development, this introduction suggests that reflection on public health emergencies in the city is not just essential from a policy perspective but helps enrich theoretical debates on the nature of contemporary urbanisation in its 'planetary' guise.

Viewpoint Shrinking homes, COVID-19 and the challenge of homeworking

There are multiple challenges in fighting a global pandemic in cities where disease can spread through crowded transit systems, shopping centres and workplaces, but it seems self-evident that encouraging people to work at home, if possible, is the most obvious measure that can reduce the transmission of COVID-19. Homeworking has quickly become the 'new normal' for those able to work remotely, with only 'frontline' workers encouraged to travel to work. Here, Hubbard et al explore how people are adapting to this 'brave new world'.