One of the key trends affecting human health in the 21st century is urbanization. Cities such as Ljubljana represent the political, administrative, scientific, cultural and economic centre of their own nation. Due to its dense population during the SARS-CoV-2 epidemic cities became epicentres for the spread of COVID-19. An epidemiological crisis is a complex crisis with long term consequences. Due to the lack of preparation for the global pandemic from the international community, it was necessary to organize coordinated crisis management and leadership within the local communities. In the Republic of Slovenia (RS), this was organized through the Subsystem of Protection Against Natural and Other Disasters. Operational and professional management of the Civil Protection and Protection, Rescue and Assistance (PRA) Forces is organized on the national, regional and local level in accordance with a unified system. Municipality of Ljubljana (MOL) is responsible for its own leadership, organization and preparation of PRA Forces. In the case of MOL the Department for Protection, Rescue and Civil Defence is responsible for this. The Fire Brigade of Ljubljana (FBL) and the Community Health Centre of Ljubljana (CHCL) are also part of the broader context of crisis management and leadership in the MOL. The FBL, through the public fire service, represents the basic rescue force of the city municipality. The CHCL is also the largest player in the field of primary health care in the RS. All three waves of the COVID-19 epidemic were found to be organizationally demanding for these key municipal players. Despite the intermediate stages of post crisis oblivion and quarantine exhaustion of citizens, the MOL successfully intervened in the epidemiological waves, although it was actually only fully prepared for the 3rd wave.
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