The impact of COVID-19 on public health systems in the Pacific Island Countries and Territories

Leila Bell; Caroline van Gemert; Onofre Edwin Merilles Jr; Haley L Cash; Mark Stoové; Margaret Hellard

doi:10.1016/j.lanwpc.2022.100498

The impact of COVID-19 on public health systems in the Pacific Island Countries and Territories

Lancet Reg Health West Pac. 2022 Jun 24:25:100498. doi: 10.1016/j.lanwpc.2022.100498. eCollection 2022 Aug.

Authors

Leila Bell^{1

2}, Caroline van Gemert^{1

3

4}, Onofre Edwin Merilles Jr⁵, Haley L Cash⁶, Mark Stoové^{1

2}, Margaret Hellard^{1

2

7

8}

Affiliations

¹ Burnet Institute, Melbourne, Australia.
² School of Public Health and Preventive Medicine, Monash University, Melbourne, Australia.
³ The University of Melbourne, Melbourne, Australia.
⁴ Vanuatu Health Program, Port Vila, Vanuatu.
⁵ The Pacific Community, Nouméa, New Caledonia.
⁶ Pacific Island Health Officers Association, Honolulu, HI, USA.
⁷ Department of Infectious Diseases, Alfred Health, Melbourne, Australia.
⁸ Doherty Institute and School of Population and Global Health, University of Melbourne, Melbourne, Australia.

Abstract

The Pacific Island Countries and Territories (PICTs) have experienced the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic in different ways and with different timelines, with some experiencing large outbreaks leading to high levels of morbidity and mortality with significant strain on health systems, while others have had no local transmission or delayed transmission until after vaccine rollouts started. Regardless of COVID-19 trends, the pandemic has had a large impact on the social, political, and economic landscape in the Pacific, the effects of which are still being understood. However, the pandemic has also put renewed focus and investment into public health systems and provided an opportunity for the PICTs to build on existing systems and recent capacity strengthening to improve public health in the Region.

Funding: Leila Bell was supported by an Australian Government Research Training Program (RTP) Scholarship. Other funding sources had no role in paper design, data collection, data analysis, interpretation, or writing of the paper.

Keywords: COVID-19; Pacific Island Countries and Territories; Public health; System strengthening.

Publication types

Review