O surto da COVID-19 e as respostas da administração municipal: munificência de recursos, vulnerabilidade social e eficácia de ações públicas

Facing an unprecedented situation of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) outbreak, public officials in the municipality-level have no clear benchmarks or tested policies. In this situation, decision-making becomes a controversial process. This paper provides insights to public agents in the Brazilian municipalities to deal with the initial stages of the COVID-19 outbreak. We analyzed the actions taken by city halls of all 52 Brazilian municipalities with at least thirty days since the first confirmed case of COVID-19. We used a fuzzy-set Qualitative Comparative Analysis (fsQCA) to identify the combinations of contextual factors and public actions that reduced the COVID-19 transmission during the critical initial stage. The empirical results show three main paths to guide policymaking: (1) a plural collaboration path involving public and private sectors in the presence of fragile health system; (2) a public action path providing aid programs through intense collaboration inside public bureaucracy; and (3) a resource-based path relying on the well-structured health system in place.