11.F. Workshop: Provision of strategic information during the COVID-19 pandemic through a multiple-layers model

Abstract

Abstract The response to the COVID-19 pandemic has been random across the world's geographic, economic, social, and political settings, with no one unique approach identified as most successful. The fact is that to respond to a pandemic domestically, public health decision makers need timely and extensive knowledge from international settings, especially about successful practices. Within the Robert Koch Institute, different departments monitor and respond to the epidemic situation domestically. To supplement routine data from domestic settings, the Centre for International Health Protection (ZIG) deployed three additional mechanisms to feed strategic pandemic-related international information into the domestic response. The evidence provided to the appropriate decision makers was collected, evaluated, and synthesized on a daily, bi-weekly, and need-based frequency. Each of the three mechanisms will be presented with a focus on a specific analysis example. The discussion that follows will allow us to share our lessons learned on using international data in domestic epidemic control. Our objective is to inform the public health community on a variety of mechanisms to utilize information from international settings to control their domestic epidemic. Key messages Domestic epidemic response should comprise evidence from international settings: a systematic and structured process for data monitoring and analysis is needed to support evidence-informed policies. Departments of international health imbedded within domestic public health agencies can deploy a multiplicity of mechanisms to provide such evidence.