To examine the core competencies in emergency management of COVID-19 pandemic, and associated factors as well as areas in demand for improvement within community public health emergency responders from Zhejiang Province.

Using the Core Response Competence Index System for Infectious Disease Emergencies among Medical Staff as a reference, we developed a questionnaire consisting of three parts: demographic and COVID-19 containment status, Core Competencies for Emergency Management of Public Health Emergencies (CCEMPHE) , and areas in demand for improvement, and used it to conduct an online survey with 749 community public health emergency responders selected from six counties (districts) of Zhejiang using stratified cluster sampling in September 2020.

The survey achieved a response rate of 93.3% (699/749) . The average score of CCEMPHE for the respondents was (118.38±27.60) , with a scoring rate of 62.3%. The scoring rates of three dimensions of the CCEMPHE from high to low were prevention ability (66.4%) , preparedness ability (63.7%) and rescue ability (62.0%) . Multiple linear regression analysis showed that education background (b=4.55) , physical quality for emergency work (b=9.26) , experiences of participating in developing emergency plan/technical proposal (b=6.43) , attending emergency training (b=6.35) , field epidemiology training (b=4.62) , on-site emergency disposal experience (b=5.32) , the number of theoretical trainings related to COVID-19 (b=4.29) , and the number of COVID-19 containment projects involved in (b=1.16) , were associated with the core competencies in emergency management of COVID-19 pandemic in community public health emergency responders (P<0.05) . In terms of areas in demand for improvement, the knowledge related to health emergency response and management (4.09±0.86) was in highest demand, on-site guidance (4.17±0.84) was the most popular training form and short-term training (3.93±0.92) was the most suitable training method.

The community public health emergency responders in Zhejiang Province had lower intermediate CCEMPHE, and a high demand for improvement. To improve the core competencies in emergency management of infectious disease emergencies of community public health emergency responders, it is suggested to health administrators to strengthen practice trainings for these responders based on their needs, especially on-site practice trainings, with a focus on practical skill training.