The imperative of preparedness in navigating health crises with a look at the pandemic of COVID-19

The disruption caused by the COVID-19 pandemic shed light on the significance of preparedness in effectively managing health crises. Sufficient time has passed since the pandemic of COVID-19 to understand and reflect on the role played by preparedness. In this narrative review, we aimed to link the preparedness measures of countries with their response to the COVID-19 pandemic. We used the preparedness framework developed by the World Health Organization (WHO), which categorizes preparedness into three categories of governance (including policies and legislations, planning, and coordination mechanisms), capacities (including risk and capacity assessment, surveillance, diagnostic services, basic and safe health services, risk communication, and research), and resources (including financial resources, logistic mechanisms, and human resources). With a systematic search strategy, we described and linked countries’ response to the COVID-19 pandemic with their programs and strategies in each category of the preparedness phase. The countries’ response to the COVID-19 pandemic reveals that nations invested in getting prepared with enhanced surveillance system, intersectoral coordination strategies, and political commitment were better equipped to navigate the storm. Among them countries that reformed their emergency management system as a lesson learned from previous pandemics, invested in resources and infrastructures, and established community engagement mechanisms could also be mentioned. The results of our study provide a combination of experiences and lessons learned from the COVID-19 pandemic with a look at the preparedness phase.