10.K. Workshop: How to upscale in capacity in different aspects of preparedness and response
Abstract The magnitude of the COVID-19 pandemic has revealed that the international community was not ready for a public health emergency of this scale. Countries around the world with varying demographic and economic situations struggle to deal with the number of SARS-CoV-2 infections and hospitalisations. There has been a scramble for all types of resources, ranging from personal protective equipment, to testing capacity, to vaccines. During this workshop, we will present scientific research which focuses on how European countries have attempted to deal with these capacity shortages in the period of the first SARS-CoV-2 pandemic wave in European countries as well as the subsequent period. Each presentation will focus on a specific capacity or domain of the COVID-19 pandemic. Yet, they will also all provide information on what went well and what did not go well in the attempt to increase capacity. The objective of the workshop is twofold. Firstly, it is to provide the audience with scientific research which aims to have a better understanding of both the capacity issues which have been identified in the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, as well as the (potential) solutions to increase capacity during inter-pandemic times and future pandemics. Secondly, it is to provide the opportunity for audience to discuss about the findings and interact with the authors. The structure of the workshop will be as follows: The session starts with two thought-provoking statements related to the first two presentations. The audience will be given the opportunity to react to these thoughts using a voting tool and via the chat. This will prime the audience for the upcoming presentations and invite them to participate interactively during the workshop. In the next 15 minutes, the first two presentations will take place. The presenters will end once again with the aforementioned statements. The audience will be given the opportunity to react by asking clarifying questions, respond to, or challenge the statements. After this discussion ends, the same process will take place for the next two presentations. Key messages During preparedness, more attention should be paid to the estimated capacity needs during response. The mobilization of existing resource capacity, and of mechanisms to upscale capacity when shortages are likely to occur, require more structured approaches.
