In February 2020, Iraq faced the COVID -19 pandemic, which posed a challenge to an already strained health system. To facilitate the response of humanitarian partners, the Iraq Health Cluster established the COVID -19 Task Force in April 2020, with the primary goal of coordinating partner preparedness and response efforts to the pandemic and advocating with the Ministry of Health to support health care delivery to those in need. One year later, in April 2021, the Task Team was able to hold regular monthly meetings to support the aforementioned objectives.
The Task Force developed the "Health Services and Supplies - COVID 19 Mapping" which initially began as static monthly visual reports and was redesigned into an interactive dashboard. It serves as an informational tool for various areas such as service delivery, facilities and resources such as emergency hospital set-up, procurement and distribution of medicines, supplies, and personal protective equipment (PPE), etc., easily accessible through a consolidated platform to support communication and coordination among stakeholders. Subsequently, a page depicting partner support for immunization activities COVID -19 was also added to the dashboard.
A COVID-19 health facility assessment template was also developed and distributed to health cluster partners and the team to monitor the quality of infection prevention and control (IPC) standards at partner-supported health facilities. Meanwhile, the COVID -19 key messages were updated to promote COVID -19 vaccination strategies, dispel myths and misinformation, and reduce fears in communities. The IPC for COVID-19 vaccination outlined methods to ensure infection prevention and control methods for safe administration of COVID-19 vaccines.
As part of a nationwide scale-up, the Ministry of Health, in partnership with WHO, began implementing a COVID-19 mass vaccination campaign in 2021 to increase vaccination coverage. By 31 December 2021, 424,354 people had been vaccinated, increasing the percentage of those who received two doses from 4.4% to 13.9%.
The results of this work have leverage for scaling up health services and facilities responding to COVID -19, particularly for immunization, as well as a tool to demonstrate the reach of support provided to affected Iraqi communities to donors and partners.
"The COVID -19 pandemic was a wake-up call for the Iraqi health system, as it is globally, on the importance of preparedness and a coordinated response that draws on the individual and collective capacities and resources of all health stakeholders in the country. The situation of Iraq's weakened health system in the aftermath of the conflict has magnified the challenges to an effective response. Nevertheless, coordination within and between clusters, involvement of the Ministry of Health and community influencers in the response and raising community awareness have played a significant role in combating the pandemic so far." Says Kamal Olleri, coordinator of the Health Cluster in Iraq.