Attachments
This document is an update to the interim guidance document entitled ‘Critical preparedness, readiness and response actions for COVID-19’, published on 22 March 2020. This version provides update recommendations in the table of critical preparedness, readiness and response actions for each transmission scenario for COVID-19 and provides an update to the full list of WHO technical guidance available for COVID-19.
Background
Several countries have demonstrated that COVID-19 transmission from one person to another can be controlled.
These actions have saved lives and have provided the rest of the world with more time to prepare for the arrival of COVID19: to ready emergency response systems; to increase capacity to detect and care for patients; to ensure hospitals have the necessary staff, supplies, structure and system; and to develop life-saving medical interventions. Even as transmission dynamics change as the pandemic evolves, every country should continue to take all necessary measures to slow further spread, to avoid their health systems becoming overwhelmed, and to prevent infection among elderly and persons with co-morbidities who are at higher risk of severe outcomes, including death.
The overarching aim of the Strategic Preparedness and Response Plan for COVID-19 is to control COVID-19 by slowing down transmission of the virus and preventing associated illness and death. The global strategic objectives are:
• Mobilize all sectors and communities to ensure that every sector of government and society takes ownership of and participates in the response and in preventing cases through hand hygiene, respiratory etiquette and individual-level physical distancing.
• Control sporadic cases and clusters and prevent community transmission by rapidly finding and isolating all cases, providing them with appropriate care, and tracing, quarantining, and supporting all contacts.
• Suppress community transmission through contextappropriate infection prevention and control measures, population level physical distancing measures, and appropriate and proportionate restrictions on non-essential domestic and international travel.
• Reduce mortality by providing appropriate clinical care for those affected by COVID-19, ensuring the continuity of essential health and social services, and protecting frontline workers and vulnerable populations.
• Develop safe and effective vaccines and therapeutics that can be delivered at scale and that are accessible based on need.
All countries should increase their level of preparedness, alert and response to identify, manage, and care for new cases of COVID-19. Countries should prepare to respond to different public health scenarios, recognizing that there is no one-sizefits-all approach to managing cases and outbreaks of COVID19. Each country should assess its risk and rapidly implement the necessary measures at the appropriate scale to reduce both COVID-19 transmission and economic, public and social impacts.