Spotlight on COVID-19Global Case Study on COVID-19

The COVID-19 global pandemic highlighted that countries are often at a crossroads with respect to their approaches to health, infection control, and travel. Countries will need to work together to address existing and new challenges to public health.

With respect to health promotion, what is important to highlight is that even under the guidance of the World Health Organization, an organization that has the mandate of directing international health and leading global health responses, governments across the world took varying measures to safeguard their citizens. Some countries banned travel, imposed lockdown hours, closed schools and halted almost all social and economic activity - while other countries did not.

What became commonplace as part of the pandemic response was the following:

• handwashing;
• wearing medical or non-medical masks;
• physical distancing of six -feet from others

A review of the definition of health promotion suggests that these behaviours would allow individuals to take control of maintaining their state of health, and would help prevent them from getting sick.

As Van Den Broucke (2020) suggests, health promotion in the era of COVID-19 and beyond may be more important than ever, and can be explained by examining the downstream, upstream and midstream implications.

Downstream-individuals have had to change their behaviour and practices to manage their risk towards COVID-19;

Midstream-workplaces, communities, organizations have had to make decisions that prioritize the health of their people, for example, to accommodate their employees' need to work from home in order to minimize exposure through interactions in physical office settings, on transit or out in the community

Upstream- Governments and community leaders have raised awareness about the risks associated with COVID-19, put in policies to limit hours of operation for businesses, determined the essential nature of personnel and services.

Questions

Describe and give examples of how principles of health promotion and/ or community development can help us better address the issues raised.

From the perspective of health promotion, what are some of the barriers or facilitators for addressing the issues raised?

Who are the stakeholders? Provide insights towards at least three important stakeholders.