The coronavirus pandemic: A new learning experience

The Novel Coronavirus (COVID-19) has taken the world by surprise over a short period of time and has quickly developed into a global pandemic that is putting governments and healthcare systems in challenging situations faced for the first time in decades.

While the post pandemic phase is still ambiguous and unpredictable as countries continue to fight the spreading of a vicious and a rapidly moving virus, there are few important lessons that we can learn from the current phase and can accordingly take them into consideration into forming solutions and planning at later stages.

Preparation, Preparation, Preparation

Many healthcare systems around the world are being challenged by this global pandemic and this has revealed that many of the big health systems are not resilient enough by seeing many of them proving to be inadequate and unprepared for times of major crisis, especially in the countries most affected by the virus spread. The healthcare system is currently the first defence mechanism against this battle and it needs every available resource to survive and maintain its response against this pandemic. More investments should be directed towards developing the healthcare systems infrastructure and improving the capacity of healthcare providers in order to strengthen the response and consequently having the least amount of losses.

The volunteering culture must be reinforced and encouraged in order to have a backup support mechanism in such times to employ every possible resource to support the healthcare system. Medical students and fresh graduates are always eager to join the field and provide aid, and their roles could be activated during such times to help decrease the load on healthcare providers and healthcare systems. Their roles vary from helping in spreading awareness, which has a major effect on controlling the spread of the virus, to actively participating in the field by responding to minor cases that although they do not require hospitalization, they contribute to overburdening the system and adding a load on healthcare providers who are already dealing with more serious conditions.

Having a community emergency medical team of volunteering doctors, nurses and paramedics can actively support healthcare providers in this battle and help decrease the number of unnecessary admissions that could increase the risk of infection and the add an obvious load on healthcare facilities.

Encouraging community solidarity and preparedness to assist will contribute to major support in times of crisis and if employed correctly and efficiently, it would help relieve a great amount of pressure on the frontline providers. 

Be quick, no time for hesitation

Many governments around the world were not quick enough to respond to this virus and hesitated to take its possible effect seriously which lead to a delay in taking extreme measures and eventually a great amount of loss.

Disaster and crisis management are key to success and more efforts should be put to estimate possible risks and outcomes in order to be well prepared for any potential crisis. Jordan for example has proved to be among the countries who have employed effective and proactive crisis management producers as it quickly responded and imposed one of the strictest lockdowns in the world on a very early stage which lead to a controllable number of cases. 

Basic public health measures should be adopted always

“Wash your hands, cover your mouth and nose when you cough or sneeze, avoid touching your face, and stay home if you are sick” are basic health measures that we underestimated over time, but the coronavirus pandemic has reminded us of their importance and reinforced the need for adopting them in the right way at all times. Hand washing and hygiene measures should be encouraged and adapted at all times and should be incorporated into the culture regularly starting from early stages such as schools.

On another side, a healthy immune system is a key weapon in fighting viruses and disease in general. Many organisations advice regarding a healthy diet and lifestyle to maintain a strong and less compromised immune system and this should be adapted at any time and not only during a threatening disease. Smoking and unhealthy habits have proved to compromise the body’s ability to fight disease and more efforts should be made to advice against it and get rid of it.

Adoption of more digitalised solutions

Modern technology has proven to be an important asset during this pandemic for the continuity and stability of the work of many vital sectors. Many sectors are at risk of losing business because they underestimated the role of technology as an alterative and depended only on traditional methods to function, which is now proving to be a threat to their suitability. More efforts should be made to adopt modern technology and encourage the young minds to invent and develop modern solutions that could play a major role in the growing and sustainability of many sectors and countries on a larger scale.

The writer is president of the Jordan Paramedic Society. He contributed this article to The Jordan Times