Decisive leadership is a necessity in the COVID-19 response

Saidi, Ahmed Mohammed Obaid Al; Nur, Fowsiya Abikar; Al-Mandhari, Ahmed; Rabbat, Maha El; Hafeez, Assad; Abubakar, Abdinasir

doi:10.1016/s0140-6736(20)31493-8

Cited by 94 publications

(72 citation statements)

References 13 publications

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“…Protecting the health of the population should take centre stage during these unprecedent times and as Joseph Wu from the University of Hong Kong stated, "it all depends on how much social mixing resumes and what kind of prevention we do" [55]. The prime factor in curbing the viral spread is to gain the population trust and continue to advocate for strict hand hygiene, social distancing and wearing masks while protecting the vulnerable [56,57]. As observed in Malta, a spill off of the viral infection is affecting the elderly population.…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Mass Events Trigger Malta's Second Peak After Initial Successful Pandemic Suppression

Cuschieri

Balzan

Gauci³

et al. 2020

J Community Health

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The second COVID-19 wave is sweeping the globe as restrictions are lifted. Malta, the 'poster child of Europe's COVID-19 first wave success' also fell victim shortly after it welcomed the first tourists on 1st of July 2020. Only four positive cases were reported over the successive 15 days. Stability was disrupted when two major mass events were organized despite various health professional warnings. In a matter of few just days, daily cases rose to two-digit figures, with high community transmission, a drastic rise in active cases, and a rate per hundred thousand in Europe second only to Spain. Frontliners were swamped with swabbing requests while trying to sustain robust case management, contact tracing and follow-up. Indeed, the number of hospitalizations and the need for intensive ventilation increased. Despite the initial cases were among young adults, within weeks a small spill off on the more elderly population was observed. Restrictions were reintroduced including mandatory mask wearing in specific locations and capping of the total number of people in a single gathering. Malta is an island and the potential for containment would have been relatively simple and effective and permitting mass gatherings was unwise. Protecting the health of the population should take centre stage while carrying out extensive testing, contact tracing and surveillance. Containment and mitigation along with public cooperation is the key to curbing resurgences especially with the influenza season around the corner.

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Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Mass Events Trigger Malta's Second Peak After Initial Successful Pandemic Suppression

Cuschieri

Balzan

Gauci³

et al. 2020

J Community Health

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…Decisive leadership is a key factor in determining success against COVID-19 (Al Saidi et al, 2020). In addition, strong, swift action, guided by sound science-driven advice, public health fundamentals, and evolving evidence, is also vital.…”

Section: Swift Action and Decisive Leadershipmentioning

confidence: 99%

Examining Factors Contributing to Eritrea’s Successful COVID-19 Response

Amahazion¹

2021

JSS

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The COVID-19 pandemic has been one of the greatest global crises in decades. To date, around the world tens of millions of cases have been confirmed, nearly two million people have died, and the livelihoods of billions have been greatly affected. While COVID-19 has been a truly global problem, infection and death rates in many African countries have been much lower than originally feared. One COVID-19 success story is Eritrea, a young, developing country in Northeast Africa that, by late December 2020, reported less than 1000 positive cases and one death due to COVID-19. However, despite its relative success, little focus has been devoted to Eritrea's response. How did it manage to keep COVID-19 at bay and what factors contributed to its success? Based on several different research methods, the present study finds that, notwithstanding limited resources, Eritrea has managed to respond to COVID-19 with relative efficiency and keep the virus at bay. The country's general success has been based upon a number of different factors.

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“…This is consistent with other study's findings, which praise countries like New Zealand for its early lockdown. Similarly, Singapore has been commended for learning from past disease outbreaks and establishing a multi-ministry COVID-19 taskforce before its first confirmed case (78). Other researchers also agree that, although lockdowns and closures should be urgently implemented to curb transmissions, building healthy behaviors on the individual level and fostering compliance on the community level are just as fundamental, which cannot be accomplished unless leaders gain the trust of the general public through transparent communication (79).…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

The Heterogeneity of National Responses to the COVID-19 Pandemic: a Mixed-method Study

Yiying

Assefa

2021

Preprint

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Background: COVID-19 has quickly spread to all corners of the world since its emergence in Wuhan, China in December of 2019. The disease burden has been heterogeneous across regions of the world, with Americas leading in cumulative cases and deaths, followed by Europe, Southeast Asia, Eastern Mediterranean, Africa and Western Pacific. Initial responses to COVID-19 also varied between governments, ranging from proactive containment to delayed intervention. Understanding these variabilities allow high burden countries to learn from low burden countries on ways to create more sustainable response plans in the future.Methods: This study used a mixed-method approach to perform cross-country comparisons of pandemic responses. The chosen countries for this study were the US, Brazil, Germany, Australia, South Korea and Thailand; they were selected based on their income level, relative COVID-19 burden and geographic location. To rationalize the clinical variability between these six countries, a list of 14 indicators was established to systematically assess the countries’ preparedness, actual response, and overall socioeconomic and demographic profile in the context of COVID-19.Results: As of December 1st , 2020, the US had the highest cases per million, followed by Brazil, Germany, Australia, South Korea and Thailand. The same ranking was observed for the countries’ deaths per million statistics. Cross-national comparison suggests that there were nine indicators to explain epidemiological differences between the countries, and they were 1) leadership, governance and coordination of response, 2) communication, 3) community engagement, 4) multisectoral actions, 5) public health capacity, 6) universal health coverage, 7) medical services and hospital capacity, 8) demography and 9) burden of non-communicable diseases.Conclusion: The COVID-19 pandemic manifests varied outcomes due to differences in countries’ vulnerability, preparedness and response. Our study rationalizes why South Korea, Thailand, Australia and Germany performed better than the US and Brazil. By identifying the strengths of low burden countries and weaknesses of hotspot countries, we elucidate specific factors constituting an effective pandemic response that can be adopted by leaders in preparation for re-emerging public health threats.

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Decisive leadership is a necessity in the COVID-19 response

Cited by 94 publications

References 13 publications

Mass Events Trigger Malta's Second Peak After Initial Successful Pandemic Suppression

Mass Events Trigger Malta's Second Peak After Initial Successful Pandemic Suppression

Examining Factors Contributing to Eritrea’s Successful COVID-19 Response

The Heterogeneity of National Responses to the COVID-19 Pandemic: a Mixed-method Study

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