Coronavirus Disease (COVID-19) Pandemic Response

National Societies’ and volunteers’ roles will change through the progression of the COVID-19 pandemic in their respective countries/communities, based on which public health, clinical and health systems activities are likely to be most impactful. At the national and local level, the WHO has divided the COVID-19 outbreak into four distinct phases:

1. No cases (preparedness phase);
2. Imported or locally detected cases (sporadic cases);
3. Clusters of cases over time or in different areas of the country (clusters);
4. Larger-scale outbreaks with local transmission (community transmission).

National Societies can support critical public health, clinical, and health systems activities during each phase, whether suppression or mitigation approaches are chosen, and support vulnerable communities by helping to mitigate the impact the outbreak has on health, social and economic systems.