Building health systems resilience for universal health coverage and health security during the COVID-19 pandemic and beyond: WHO position paper
Overview
As of the 23rd of June 2021, over 178 million people across the world have been infected by the novel coronavirus SARS-CoV-2, causing 3,880,450 deaths. The pandemic of novel coronavirus disease (COVID-19) has had far-reaching consequences for all parts of society, causing unprecedented disruption of health services as national authorities struggle to cope. Stringent public health and social measures as a response to the current pandemic have grossly affected lives and livelihoods, plunging the world economy into recession, to an estimated amount of US$ 8.8 trillion (2020–2021), not to mention record unemployment.
Progress made in many countries towards United Nations Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 3 has not only stalled, but even threatens to regress, as health stewards are simultaneously confronted with the pandemic response, health system recovery and long-term development challenges.
Even countries scoring well on traditional health security and universal health coverage (UHC) measures have struggled with responding to and managing the risks of this pandemic. The burden of this struggle has been borne disproportionately by the most vulnerable communities in all countries.