Lessons learned from COVID-19 pandemic: virtual regional consultation with informal expert group, 19 October 2021

Overview

The COVID-19 pandemic revealed that the pre-pandemic level of preparedness was not sufficient to effectively manage such a severe health emergency. To more effectively respond to the ongoing pandemic and prepare for future pandemics and emergencies, it is crucial to identify the key learnings from the COVID-19 response to further strengthen health security and health system resilience. The Seventy-fourth Session of the WHO Regional Committee for South-East Asia in September 2021 recommended “further synthesis of the lessons learnt from the COVID-19 response at a regional level” and “to develop a regional roadmap to strengthen health security in the South-East Asia Region”.