Introduction:

The management and control of a health emergency situation is one of the most difficult and complex scenarios to face.

Objective:

To propose elements that, from the strategic approach to risk management, were used in decision-making in dealing with COVID-19 health emergencies.

Development:

A bibliographic and documentary review of the main authors related to the subject was carried out. Comparative, descriptive-explanatory methods were used for analysis and assessments. Through the causal and matrix analysis, the elements that connote risk management in health emergency situations were proposed. Elements were proposed that from the strategic approach to risk management can be used in the decision-making process in confronting COVID-19.

Conclusions:

As the pandemic spread throughout the world and in the country, its connotation as a health, economic and social crisis became more evident, with dimensions and duration of its effects difficult to quantify and predict, which forced the improvement of protocols for their confrontation. The strategic conception of risk management becomes a valid action platform to promote ways to identify danger, enhance communication and risk perception, as well as the development of vulnerability management, to reinforce the confrontation with COVID -19. These actions are aimed at strengthening the response capacity.