Abstracts Health Sciences

National Health Response to COVID-19 Pandemic in Saudi Arabia: A Scope Review of Preparedness, Response and Outcomes.

by Zia Haider

<strong>Introduction:</strong> In light of the global public health emergency caused by the new coronavirus (COVID-19) which emerged in Wuhan, Hubei Province, People's Republic of China during December 2019 and the announcement from the director-general of the World Health Organization on 11 March 2020 that the outbreak is a pandemic.1 Since then COVID-19 pandemic has affected human life globally in many ways. Many countries responded differently by taking different public health preventive, protective and curative measures to fight against the pandemic. It has resulted in many actions such as different levels of social restrictions, wearing of masks, and avoidance of hand shaking and even shutting down of work places and schools for kids globally in many countries. Different preventive and treatment strategies were tried in the past year to deal with rising numbers of cases and deaths and attempting to bring life back to normality. <strong>Rationale:</strong> The pandemic revealed the shortcomings of many health systems, including some that were previously classified as high performing and resilient. Therefore, a comprehensive analysis of health system resilience during the pandemic can identify important lessons and help strengthen countries' preparedness, response and approach to future health challenges. This Scope review examines the evidence that how the national health system functions in COVID-19 pandemic and examines how actions have contributed to strengthening the health system in response to the COVID-19 pandemic in Saudi Arabia. <strong>Objectives: </strong> Scope review of the literature regarding Saudi Arabian National Health system, COVID-19 pandemic response. How large gathering management during pandemic contributed to the national Health system COVID-19 pandemic response. Social restriction and their effects on the overall management of the health emergency in Saudi Arabia.