A two-year, €30.5 million project of the European Union and WHO Regional Office for Europe in six countries of the Eastern Partnership – Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Georgia, the Republic of Moldova and Ukraine

EASTERN PARTNERSHIP REGION PROJECT IMPACT:

APRIL–AUGUST 2020

Keeping COVID-19 frontline responders safe• More than 8.5 million units of personal protective equipment, such as medical masks, examination gloves, goggles and isolation gowns have been delivered and distributed to health-care workers and facilities across the six countries.

Scaling up testing capacityTesting capacity and speed have been scaled up in three countries.

• In Azerbaijan, the setting up of a national laboratory network, with the participation of 50 laboratories as well as government and private agencies, has helped increase the

testing capacity to 5200 tests per day.

• Ten laboratories in the Republic of Moldova, which performed a few hundred tests a day previously, can now carry out up to 3200 tests per day.

• In Ukraine, 27 COVID-19 laboratories, that had a testing capacity of 300 per day are now able to carry out 23 000 quality-assured tests each day, thanks to the delivery of essential laboratory supplies such as PCR1 reagents.

• Laboratory staff in Azerbaijan and Ukraine have been trained – both online and on-site - in infection prevention, laboratory biosafety and biosecurity, helping improve the safe collection, transportation and processing of test samples. In Ukraine alone, 300 laboratory specialists have been trained.

SOLIDARITY FOR HEALTH INITIATIVEAddressing the COVID-19 pandemic and building a resilient health sector in the Eastern Partnership

1 PCR: polymerase chain reaction.

PROJECT IMPACT: APRIL–AUGUST 2020

EASTERN PARTNERSHIP REGIONStrengthening the health workforceFirst responders and health-care professionals have been updated on the latest guidance and trained in infection prevention and investigation protocols. Those benefitting from the training include:

• 20 epidemiologists working in ports, airports and ground crossings in Georgia, 300 health care workers across the country, key staff in 16 hospitals and fever clinics and six trainers who will in turn train other health-care providers;

• Health workers in more than 1500 primary health care facilities and 67 national, municipal and district hospitals in the Republic of Moldova and 250 health-care providers in Transnistria;

• More than 400 health-care workers in primary health care centres and hospitals in Azerbaijan;

• 230 health-care providers in primary health care and 50 in hospitals in Armenia;

• 1000 clinicians and 2000 frontline health-care workers in Ukraine.

Training on providing essential and quality care for patients has included:

• 57 online training sessions in the Republic of Moldova to build the capacity of mental health care service providers, primary health care professionals and hospital staff;

• Also in the Republic of Moldova, 16 online training sessions have prepared 1345 health-care workers on best patient treatment practices; and

• 150 health-care providers and 5 health-care facilities in Ukraine trained on fit-testing of equipment.

Preparing hospitals for an effective response has involved:

• Self-assessments in 67 hospitals in the Republic of Moldova that have helped identify and fix gaps in infection prevention and control measures – in Ukraine, 200 health- care facilities were assessed on these measures; and

• Plans developed for 11 hospitals in the Republic of Moldova and 23 in Ukraine to ensure their readiness to respond to the pandemic.

Occupational support for health-care providers has included:

• A new mental health and psychological support programme for health-care practitioners that has reached 35 hospitals and 50 agencies in Ukraine.

PROJECT IMPACT: APRIL–AUGUST 2020

EASTERN PARTNERSHIP REGIONDelivering essential supplies for the care of patientsTo date, 695 units of equipment for patient care delivered and distributed to health-care facilities in five countries to help care for patients with COVID-19. These include:

• 60 health-care facilities in Azerbaijan equipped with pulse oximeters, to estimate the saturation of oxygen in a patient’s blood;

• 356 oxygen concentrators in the Republic of Moldova; and

• 100 oxygen concentrators in Ukraine.

Tracking the course of the pandemicTo monitor virus transmission rates and identify health-care needs promptly, four countries have begun utilizing new technologies and have developed national protocols.

• Armenia has developed a roadmap to implement data visualization technologies for the collection of health data to inform national public health guidelines and health-care facilities’ operating procedures. Data include infection and mortality rates and intensive care unit occupancy in hospitals.

• Georgia’s National Centre for Disease Control and Public Health has developed a national protocol for enhanced surveillance.

• The Republic of Moldova has set up the Public Health Emergency Operations Centre to ensure improved and timely access to real-time tracking of pandemic data.

• Ukraine has installed 322 units of IT equipment in 25 epidemiological departments to increase infection surveillance.

Increasing public compliance with health measures

• A six-part study to provide insights into public knowledge, risk perceptions, behaviours and trust is underway in Armenia, Azerbaijan, Georgia, the Republic of Moldova and Ukraine.

• Data gathered so far have been used to guide the countries’ COVID-19 response and will help in increasing the effectiveness of the measures introduced to prevent its spread.

• Guidance for the public has been issued regularly and the community is being engaged to help reduce virus transmission.

This publication was produced with the financial support of the European Union. Its contents are the sole responsibility of the WHO Regional Office for Europe and do not necessarily reflect the views of the European Union.