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A Coordinated Public-Private Sector Response in Liberia to COVID-19

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In February 2020, the Healthcare Federation of Liberia (HFL) was officially launched and elected its first governing board. The HFL will provide coordination among all private health stakeholders across Liberia and act as a consolidated voice to advocate for improved quality of care and increased collaboration with the Ministry of Health.

The launch of the federation followed an assessment of Liberia’s private health sector, conducted by the USAID-funded Health Policy Plus project in 2019, which identified the need for a unifying body as a vehicle to improve the private health system. The HFL’s organizational strategy was to focus on strengthening standards within—and accreditation of—private facilities, providing access to business financing and supplies of essential commodities, such as for family planning.

However, on March 16, 2020, Liberia recorded its first COVID-19 case. As of April 10, Liberia has recorded 37 cases and five deaths. The most important task for the HFL in its first month of operation, therefore, became coordinating an effective private sector response to COVID-19.  This report tells the story of how Liberia responded to the pandemic.

Source: A Coordinated Public-Private Sector Response in Liberia to COVID-19

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    Using Social and Behavioural Science to Support COVID-19 Pandemic Response

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    The COVID-19 pandemic represents a massive global health crisis. Because the crisis requires large-scale behavior change and places significant psychological burdens on individuals, insights from the social and behavioral sciences can be used to help align human behavior with the recommendations of epidemiologists and public health experts.

    In this article from Nature, the authors discuss evidence from a selection of research topics relevant to pandemics, including work on navigating threats, social and cultural influences on behavior, science communication, moral decision-making, leadership, and stress and coping. In each section, they note the nature and quality of prior research, including uncertainty and unsettled issues. They identify several insights for effective response to the COVID-19 pandemic and highlight important gaps researchers should move quickly to fill in the coming weeks and months.

    Source: Using Social and Behavioural Science to Support COVID-19 Pandemic Response

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      Responding to COVID-19 in Africa: Using Data to Find a Balance

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      In this report, the Partnership for EvidenceBased Response to COVID-19 (PERC), a consortium of global public health organizations and private sector firms, brings together findings from a survey conducted March 29-April 17, 2020 in 28 cities across 20 AU Member States, along with epidemiological measures of disease transmission and indicators of population movements and unrest, among others. Synthesized, these data provide a first-of-its-kind snapshot of baseline conditions in Africa during this rapidly evolving pandemic.

      The following recommendations are made:

      • While caseloads remain low, build public health capacity to test, trace, isolate, and treat cases—the necessary foundation for reopening society
      • Monitor data on how PHSMs meet local COVID-19 conditions and needs, and to determine when and how to lift them in a way that balances lives and livelihoods
      • Engage communities to adapt PHSMs to the local context and effectively communicate about risk to sustain public support, achieve widespread adherence, and shield vulnerable populations.

      Source: Responding to COVID-19 in Africa: Using Data to Find a Balance

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        Early Estimates of the Indirect Effects of the COVID-19 Pandemic on Maternal and Child Mortality in Low-income and Middle-income Countries: A Modelling Study

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        While the COVID-19 pandemic will increase mortality due to the virus, it is also likely to increase mortality indirectly. In this study, the authors estimate the additional maternal and under-5 child deaths resulting from the potential disruption of health systems and decreased access to food.

        The results of the study show that if routine health care is disrupted and access to food is decreased (as a result of unavoidable shocks, health system collapse, or intentional choices made in responding to the pandemic), the increase in child and maternal deaths will be devastating. The authors hope these numbers add context as policy makers establish guidelines and allocate resources in the days and months to come.

        Source: Early Estimates of the Indirect Effects of the COVID-19 Pandemic on Maternal and Child Mortality in Low-income and Middle-income Countries: A Modelling Study

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          Coronavirus: The Seven Types of People who Start and Spread Viral Misinformation

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          BBC Media have investigated hundreds of misleading stories during the pandemic. It’s given them an idea about who is behind misinformation – and what motivates them.

          According to BBC Media, gere are seven types of people who start and spread falsehoods:

          1. The joker
          2. The scammer
          3. The politician
          4. The conspiracy theorist
          5. The insider
          6. The relative
          7. The celebrity

          Source: Coronavirus: The Seven Types of People who Start and Spread Viral Misinformation

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            Types, Sources, and Claims of COVID-19 Misinformation

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            This factsheet uses a sample of fact-checks to identify some of the main types, sources, and claims of COVID-19 misinformation seen so far. Building on other analyses (Hollowood and Mostrous 2020; EuVsDIS 2020; Scott 2020), the authors combine a systematic content analysis of fact-checked claims about the virus and the pandemic with social media data indicating the scale and scope of engagement.

            The analysis concludes that misinformation about COVID-19 comes in many different forms, from many different sources, and makes many different claims. It frequently reconfigures existing or true content rather than fabricating it wholesale, and where it is manipulated, is edited with simple tools.

            Source: Types, Sources, and Claims of COVID-19 Misinformation

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              Gender Norms and the Coronavirus

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              There is now emerging a wealth of commentary on the gendered implications of the coronavirus (Covid-19) pandemic. We know that crises can spur new ways of behaving, sometimes leading to shifts in gender norms and underpinning sustained change towards gender equality. But with the fast spreading coronavirus pandemic many gender inequalities have already been intensified as existing discriminatory and harmful norms continue or worsen in the face of change such as violence against women, which has intensified globally under lockdowns and in the face of economic stress.

              ALIGN is currently analysing what leads to shifts in gender norms both during and after crises to enhance knowledge and innovation among our community, and we will be sharing new resources as they become available. Highlighted on this site are resources produced by ALIGN and their partners relating to Covid-19 (and non-communicable diseases more broadly) and gender norms.

              Source: Gender Norms and the Coronavirus

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                WHO COVID-19 Learning Resources Application

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                The WHO mobile learning app focuses on providing frontline health workers with critical, evidence-based information and tools to improve their skills and capabilities related to the pandemic.

                This COVID-19 Digital Response offers up-to-the-minute guidance, training, and virtual workshops to support health workers in caring for patients infected by COVID-19, as well as how they can protect themselves as they do their critical work.

                The app was created in direct response to an online survey of health workers conducted in March and April 2020 that received 20,000 submissions. Key features include learning guidance, learning materials, and tools organized into the following COVID-19 subject matter areas:

                • Case Management: How to care for COVID-19 patients
                • Infection Prevention Control: Protecting health worker and the community
                • Risk Communication and Community Engagement: Communicating effectively with the public
                • Epidemiology: Distribution, characteristics, and determinants of COVID-19
                • Statistics: Updated news and statistics on the COVID-19 pandemic
                • Laboratory: Testing for COVID-19 in humans
                • Health Services and Systems: Strategic planning and coordinated action
                • International Health Regulations: Public health and international spread of disease
                • Research & Development: Working towards a treatment and a vaccine
                • Operational Support and Logistics
                • Regional Information

                The WHO mobile learning app is a convenient tool for accessing WHO’s rapidly expanding and evolving training materials and guidance, along with opportunities to participate in virtual classrooms and other live training in six global languages: Arabic, Chinese, English, French, Russian, and Spanish.

                Source: WHO COVID-19 Learning Resources Application

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                  Team Human Vs Team COVID

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                  As a subscribed organization that uses football as the core component to reach out to the youth with health messages, development of football based comic booklets featuring team Covid-19 Vs Team Human is underway. The booklets will be distributed via door to door to the youth who participate in VAP’s youth programs as well as through their parents’ WhatsApp group. The print version will be supplemented by an electronic animation version to be watched at homes by the youth and the general public while learning about covid-19 and its preventive measures.

                  Source: Team Human Vs Team COVID

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                    Applying Principles of Behaviour Change to Reduce SARS-CoV-2 Transmission

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                    This paper focuses on adherence to behaviors required to reduce COVID-19 virus transmission. The authors argue that there is an urgent need to develop and evaluate interventions to promote effective enactment of these behaviors and provide a preliminary analysis to help guide this. This is relevant for the current phase of the pandemic and to reduce the risk of resurgence in months to come and of future pandemics.

                    Source: Applying Principles of Behaviour Change to Reduce SARS-CoV-2 Transmission

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