The pandemic has revealed poor coordination and coherence between the national government, which takes action to treat the country integrally, and the municipal authorities, who have a better understanding of the local situation and needs of the city. Local authorities play a leading role in defining specific policies for crisis management on a city level. It is essential both for countries with centralized and decentralized forms of government due to asymmetry of Covid impact among regions, national and local areas. As an example, for the reason of limited local independence in decision-making and financing, and strong dependence on the central government for resources and coordination, which has led to a conflict of priorities between different levels of governmental organisations. Cities of Australia and the United States have seen partial success in containing the spread of the virus in its early stages. 

On the other hand, some of the municipal governments did not involve the local community and other stakeholders in the emergency response process, nor did they share enough transparency and consistency of protocols and procedures. Along with greater trust in the government and related institutions, this approach helps municipalities to respond to the crisis in a targeted manner. Consistent, clear, and open communication between all parties is critical to finding better solutions, sharing knowledge, and maintaining discipline among the population, which in turn can mitigate the negative impact of the crisis. And vice versa, the lack of such action can lead to some form of rebellion against quarantine measures imposed by national or local governments, which can be seen at the perception of some cities⁸, especially the western liberal democracies as the European Union and America, such as Berlin, Paris, New York, etc.

Another important aspect is having emergency preparedness mechanisms based on lessons learned from past events to detect and respond to a possible pandemic. Those countries that have developed national and municipal plans using their historical experience and switched to them swiftly have done a better job of containing the coronavirus attack. Among such successful cases are Singapore, South Korea, and the United Arab Emirates.