1. Preventing Transmission

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.

July 15, 2020July 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.

July 3, 2020July 3, 2020

Efficient health communication about COVID-19 can raise awareness and motivate more people to engage in health-protective behaviour.

June 18, 2020June 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.

June 8, 2020June 8, 2020

Care homes have become the focus of the COVID-19 debate across Europe.

June 4, 2020June 5, 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.

June 3, 2020June 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.

May 29, 2020May 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.

May 22, 2020May 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.

May 19, 2020May 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.

Cross-Country Analysis

Who has regulatory responsibility for stocking PPE in ambulatory settings, and how does it work in practice?

What do countries need to do to implement effective ‘find, test, trace, isolate and support’ systems?

What channels are countries using to communicate with the public and at what frequency?

How do countries structure contact tracing operations and what is the role of apps?

What measures have been taken to protect care homes during the COVID-19 crisis?

How comparable is COVID-19 mortality across countries?

How do countries control the entry of travellers during the COVID-19 pandemic?

What is the role of the military in the COVID-19 response?

What are the policies on wearing facemasks in public places?

How do measures for isolation, quarantine, and contact tracing differ among countries?