Lessons on Preparedness and Response for Pandemic

DOI : 10.5530/amdhs.2020.4.14 INTRODUCTION The Novel Coronavirus SARS-CoV-2 (COVID-19) pandemic began in Wuhan (China) in December 2019. It has spread over 200 countries with more than 21 million confirmed cases of COVID-19 and over 700,000 deaths (August 16, 2020).[1] This is despite the explicit warning of the World Health Organization in 2011 implying that world is ill-prepared to respond to a severe influenza pandemic or to any similarly global, sustained and threatening public-health emergency.[2] Nevertheless, as the inherent vulnerabilities of the existing health systems have been brutally exposed by the present pandemic, it is imperative that we learned better preparedness and response for a pandemic.[2]