The Universal Postal Union (UPU) has said that accurate addresses are vital for authorities to reach individuals, deploy emergency services and deliver medical supplies as COVID-19 spreads around the world.

The address infrastructure helps manage information that can be used and exchanged at different levels of government and health authorities.

In many cases, identification data and addresses can be linked on databases and information on infected cases to include the number of people in a neighbourhood that have been infected by the pandemic.

Patricia Vivas, addressing and postcode expert at UPU, said, “In Europe, mapping outbreak cases of COVID-19 and deployment of emergency services have been handled in a matter of hours in countries like Italy or Spain. A very different scenario is to be expected in less economically developed countries where the COVID-19 situation is becoming increasingly intense; however, addressing networks and mapping tools have yet to be fully implemented in many of these countries.”

Emergency service responses are time-sensitive to identify a location and the best route to access it.

Vivas said, “Street names and house numbers greatly facilitate the ability of emergency response teams to reach an affected area. When operating in the field, the security and health personnel involved in the COVID-19 pandemic must be kept informed about the actions to be carried out and the risks of their work.”