Skip to content
Cross-Country Analysis
  • COVID-19 HSRM Home
  • Cross-Country Analysis Home
  • Subscribe to HSRM bulletin
  • English
  • Русский

Latest Posts

Cross-Country Analysis


Policy Responses

  • All
    • 1. Preventing Transmission
      • 1.1 Health communication
      • 1.2 Physical distancing
      • 1.3 Isolation and quarantine
      • 1.4 Monitoring and surveillance
      • 1.5 Testing
    • 2. Ensuring sufficient physical infrastructure and workforce capacity
      • 2.1 Physical infrastructure
      • 2.2 Workforce
    • 3. Providing health services effectively
      • 3.1 Planning services
      • 3.2 Managing cases
      • 3.3 Managing essential services
    • 4. Paying for services
      • 4.1 Health financing
      • 4.2 Entitlement and coverage
    • 5. Governance
    • 6. Measures in other sectors
  • Uncategorized

Latest Posts

Browse the most recent cross-country analyses or filter content by clicking the policy responses.

  • Who’s in charge and why? Centralization within and between governmentsJanuary 21, 2021
    Successful response to the COVID-19 pandemic requires coordination within and across governments.
  • In and out of lockdowns, and what is a lockdown anyway? Policy issues in transitionsDecember 17, 2020
    In the absence of effective treatments or a vaccine, governments depend on public policy to respond to COVID-19. This article reviews key issues surrounding transitions – the “closing” and “reopening” of economies during the pandemic.
  • How do countries respond to localized outbreaks in different workplace settings?December 17, 2020
    Before an effective COVID-19 vaccine becomes widely available, countries must find a way to safeguard their economies and the welfare of their populations, while continuously mitigating the impact of COVID-19 through the implementation of public health and social measures.
  • How are countries readjusting international travel in the context of COVID-19, and what criteria is being used to inform decision-making?December 11, 2020
    As the pandemic has evolved, each country in the World Health Organization (WHO) European Region has applied entry requirements for some international travellers.
  • Adjusting hospital inpatient payment systems for COVID-19December 8, 2020
    All countries in Europe will have to find solutions to protect hospitals from revenue shortfalls and to adequately reimburse for COVID-19-related costs of care.
  • Compensating healthcare professionals for income losses and extra expenses during COVID-19December 2, 2020
    COVID-19 has affected the incomes of some health professionals by reducing demand for care and increasing expenditures for treatment preparedness.
  • The COVID-19 pandemic and long-term care: what can we learn from the first wave about how to protect care homes?November 26, 2020
    The COVID-19 pandemic has highlighted and exacerbated pre-existing problems in the long-term care sector.
  • How have countries restarted more routine ambulatory care activities during the COVID-19 pandemic?November 24, 2020
    The organization and provision of ambulatory care, that is, care provided in an outpatient setting without admission to a hospital (including primary care and outpatient specialised care), has been heavily affected by the COVID-19 pandemic.
  • Keeping what works: remote consultations during the COVID-19 pandemicNovember 18, 2020
    The COVID-19 pandemic saw a rapid rise in the use of remote consultations by telephone and video link.
  • Restarting more routine hospital activities during COVID-19: approaches from six countriesNovember 10, 2020
    During the COVID-19 pandemic, hospitals face the concurrent challenges of maintaining routine services while attending to COVID-19 patients.
  • Managing health systems on a seesaw: balancing the delivery of essential health services whilst responding to COVID-19November 5, 2020
    The COVID-19 pandemic has put health systems and their ability to deliver health care services under strain.
  • How are countries supporting their health workers during COVID-19?November 3, 2020
    Health workers have been at the forefront of treating and caring for patients with COVID-19.
  • What strategies are countries using to expand health workforce surge capacity during the COVID-19 pandemic?November 3, 2020
    Finding ways to increase the surge capacity and flexibility of the health workforce has been fundamental to delivering an effective COVID-19 response.
  • How comparable is COVID-19 mortality across countries?November 3, 2020
    Surveillance and monitoring systems are central to governments’ responses to the COVID-19 pandemic. This article focuses on assessing differences in mortality recording across countries and over time, to inform country comparisons.
  • Effective contact tracing and the role of apps: lessons from EuropeNovember 3, 2020
    Contact tracing is an essential tool to support the transition back to normal life during the COVID-19 pandemic. This article explores how 31 countries operate contact tracing, using data extracted from the COVID-19 Health Systems Response Monitor (HSRM).
  • Successful find-test-trace-isolate-support systems: how to win at snakes and laddersNovember 3, 2020
    In order to ease lockdown restrictions and prevent a second wave of infections, countries must be able to find, test, trace, isolate and support new COVID-19 cases.
  • What strategies and approaches are countries implementing within schools both in response to COVID-19 and to localized outbreaks?September 15, 2020
    Responses to COVID-19 within schools have varied significantly across the European Region.
  • How have countries restarted more routine hospital activities during the COVID-19 pandemic?September 7, 2020
    As the COVID-19 pandemic unravelled, hospitals had to deal with the often overwhelming need to treat patients exposed to the virus. To minimize exposure and maximize health workforce capacity, many hospitals postponed elective procedures and non-essential services.
  • Who has regulatory responsibility for stocking PPE in ambulatory settings, and how does it work in practice?August 5, 2020
    The COVID-19 pandemic created an unprecedented demand for personal protective equipment (PPE) (e.g. gloves, medical masks, goggles, etc.), and large disruptions in the global marketplace made it difficult for virtually all countries to obtain PPE for their own needs in the first months of the pandemic.
  • How have federal countries organized their COVID-19 response?July 16, 2020
    Federalism is the kind of unavoidable reality that shapes every element of public health policy and politics in federal countries.
  • What do countries need to do to implement effective ‘find, test, trace, isolate and support’ systems?July 15, 2020
    This article, published open-access in the Journal of the Royal Society of Medicine, shows how a ‘Snakes and Ladders’ board game can be a useful framework for understanding the opportunities and pitfalls that countries face when operationalising a find, test, trace, isolate, support strategy.
  • What channels are countries using to communicate with the public and at what frequency?July 3, 2020
    Efficient health communication about COVID-19 can raise awareness and motivate more people to engage in health-protective behaviour.
  • How are countries compensating health professionals for income losses and extra expenses due to COVID-19?June 25, 2020
    The COVID-19 pandemic has affected incomes of health professionals in two important ways.
  • How do countries structure contact tracing operations and what is the role of apps?June 18, 2020
    In this policy snapshot we provide a comparative analysis of how 30 countries in the World Health Organization (WHO) European Region structure their contact tracing operations.
  • How do countries adjust hospital payment systems for COVID-19?June 15, 2020
    The coronavirus crisis creates three important challenges for hospital finances.
  • What measures have been taken to protect care homes during the COVID-19 crisis?June 8, 2020
    Care homes have become the focus of the COVID-19 debate across Europe.
  • What is the value of civil society in the COVID-19 crisis?June 5, 2020
    Civil society in health is diverse, ubiquitous, and can be helpful.
  • How comparable is COVID-19 mortality across countries?June 4, 2020
    Dashboards from the World Health Organization (WHO), Johns Hopkins University, and Worldometer, among others, publish information on daily numbers and rates of COVID-19 cases and deaths. However, they rely on summary data supplied by countries (or, sometimes, a variety of sources) and the deaths ultimately counted as COVID-19 can differ substantially, complicating cross-country comparisons. 
  • How do countries control the entry of travellers during the COVID-19 pandemic?June 3, 2020
    As the COVID-19 outbreak started to spread from the initial epicentre in Wuhan, China to other continents and regional hot-spots, countries began to assemble a battery of measures aimed at disrupting the transmission of the virus.
  • What is the role of the military in the COVID-19 response?May 29, 2020
    In every country the military has a range of specialist resources that can be brought to bear in crises as well as a distinctive culture and legal status.
  • What are the policies on wearing facemasks in public places?May 22, 2020
    Wearing masks in public places is increasingly seen as having an important contribution to containing the spread of COVID-19 as countries transition out of lockdown measures, especially when physical distancing is not always possible.  
  • How are countries supporting the mental health and wellbeing of their health workforce?May 21, 2020
    Providing appropriate emotional, financial and practical support to protect health workers’ mental health and wellbeing and enable them to do their job are crucial to delivering an effective COVID-19 response.
  • How do measures for isolation, quarantine, and contact tracing differ among countries?May 19, 2020
    COVID-19 spreads through inhalation of small droplets from the coughing or sneezing of people who are infected, as well as through touching contaminated surfaces. Hence, public health measures in the form of isolation and quarantine of confirmed and suspected cases are key to preventing the further spread of the virus.
  • How are countries getting out of lockdown?May 7, 2020
    Many countries around the world are currently planning measures for re-opening their economies in the wake of the first wave of coronavirus, or for that matter taking them. There is little sign of coordination or a common approach to this difficult problem. 
  • How will governments know when to lift and impose restrictions?May 7, 2020
    In order to know when to lift or impose restrictions, governments need good data and the ability to interpret it.
  • What do governments need to consider as they implement transition plans?May 7, 2020
    Creating a strategic plan to manage coronavirus is only part of the battle. A number of mediating factors govern the extent to which strategic plans will actually be effective. 
  • How much additional money are countries allocating to health from their domestic resources?May 7, 2020
    To combat the COVID-19 pandemic, countries are mobilizing additional domestic resources for their health systems, not to mention for other forms of social protection and economic stimuli. But how much extra money are we really talking about when it comes to health?
  • How are countries reorganizing non-COVID-19 health care service delivery?May 6, 2020
    Policy-makers are currently facing the challenge of striking the right balance between two competing goals: ensuring adequate capacities to treat those affected by COVID-19 and providing services that are necessary to maintain the health of the population. 
  • How are countries using digital health tools in responding to COVID-19?April 28, 2020
    Digital health tools are playing a central role in responding to COVID-19; some are established tools, some are existing tools being used in new ways, and increasingly there is attention to developing specific new digital health tools to respond to the pandemic.
  • What are countries doing to give providers flexibility to respond to the COVID-19 outbreak?April 27, 2020
    Health care providers need flexibility to be able to respond quickly to meet increased demand in the outbreak, to offer new methods of service delivery and to maintain essential health services for non-COVID-19 conditions. The way in which providers are paid can be an obstacle to these objectives.
  • How are countries mobilizing additional public funds for health?April 27, 2020
    A strong health system response to the pandemic requires additional public funds that can be deployed quickly and transparently. Without additional public funding, the health system will not only struggle to control the pandemic but also may fail to maintain essential health services for other conditions.
  • How are countries removing financial barriers to accessing health services in the context of COVID-19?April 27, 2020
    Households increasingly face financial strain as the COVID-19 outbreak becomes an economic crisis in many countries. If people face concerns about health care affordability, they may delay seeking treatment or be prevented from obtaining the services they need, making the outbreak harder to control.
  • How do the worst-hit regions manage COVID-19 patients when they have no spare capacity left?April 24, 2020
    Within and across European countries, there is great divergence in hospital bed and intensive care unit (ICU) capacity. To alleviate pressure on intensive-care capacity, national and regional governments and hospitals have started to help each other by transferring critically ill patients from the worst-hit regions.
  • What strategies are countries using to expand health workforce surge capacity to treat COVID-19 patients?April 23, 2020
    The COVID-19 pandemic has placed immense pressure on the health workforce across Europe and worldwide, which has been exacerbated by workforce depletion as health professionals themselves are at high risk of being infected by COVID-19.
  • What strategies are countries using to find new Personal Protective Equipment (PPE)?April 21, 2020
    The COVID-19 pandemic has led to many countries facing shortages of sufficient personal protective equipment (PPE). The combination of increased demand for PPE and large disruptions in the global marketplace has made it difficult for virtually all countries to obtain PPE for their own needs. 
  • How are countries centralizing governance and at what stage are they doing it?April 19, 2020
    Intersectoral governance for health has long been seen as a “nice to have”- a search for useful win-wins between sectors. In the COVID-19 pandemic, it is critical and occurring virtually everywhere in one way or another. 
  • How do COVID-19 testing criteria differ across countries?April 16, 2020
    Since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, countries have been advised by WHO to expand testing in order to detect COVID-19 cases early, ensure their isolation, trace and isolate their contacts, and determine the epidemiological situation as accurately as possible.
  • How susceptible are European countries based on age-demographics and disease prevalence?April 16, 2020
    Available evidence indicates that while anyone can become infected and become ill with COVID-19, older people and those with chronic conditions are most susceptible to serious complications or death. This raises important questions, a priori, about the vulnerability of European populations to COVID-19 based on their age-demographics and disease.

WHO Regional Office for Europe

COVID-19 site

Follow @WHO_europe on Twitter

European Commission Directorate-General Sante

Coronavirus Response

Follow @EU_Health on Twitter

European Observatory on Health Systems and Policies

Health Systems and Policy Monitor (HSPM)

Follow @OBShealth on Twitter