The COVID-19 pandemic underscored the importance of communities as foundational bedrock for dealing with public health emergencies. Countries need to regularly assess their operational readiness of preparedness activities, especially at the community level to detect and respond to outbreaks of epidemic and pandemic potential more effectively. The community readiness simulation exercise was aimed at enabling stakeholders to identify strengths, gaps and reflect on priorities that will help strengthen communities’ readiness, working with the health workforce to detect, notify and respond to public health threats before they escalate. Participants were taken through a series of scenarios designed to assess community readiness to possible health outbreaks. The outcome will provide useful information to inform the WHO Community Readiness Checklist, including transferable lessons for other communities and countries.

Source: The North Africa Journal February 18, 2024 11:31 UTC