Pivoting During COVID-19: How Health Policy Enables Service Provision in a Pandemic
July 30, 2020
9:00 am EDT
Evidence-based health policies allow countries to quickly and effectively pivot from business as usual to full-scale pandemic response. Strengthening local leadership, developing vertical and horizontal mechanisms to build capacity, enabling frontline workers to make swift decisions, and focusing on high-impact interventions are essential elements to lessen the impact of pandemics like COVID-19, reduce mortality and morbidity, and save lives.
Also essential are longer-term strategies that ensure a continuum of care, while also improving case detection and motivating behavior change in the face of the immediate crisis. But, to be effective, these efforts must engage local organizations that have the knowledge and trust of their communities.
A holistic COVID-19 response, focused on service delivery and informed by local realities, will require:
- A range of health policies—from national strategies to facility-level standard operating procedures
- A cadre of health decisionmakers and service providers, equipped with the needed skills, tools, and information to effectively identify, isolate, and care for those in need and protect themselves
- Enhanced lab capacity and effective surveillance to inform decisions for care
- Effective risk communication, case detection, and behavior change
Our latest webinar showcases the COVID-19 public health response underway, featuring ongoing service delivery activities in Brazil, El Salvador, and Honduras.
