Journal of Healthcare Leadership (Oct 2020)

A Comparative Study on the Strategies Adopted by the United Kingdom, India, China, Italy, and Saudi Arabia to Contain the Spread of the COVID-19 Pandemic

  • Alanezi F,
  • Aljahdali A,
  • Alyousef SM,
  • Alrashed H,
  • Mushcab H,
  • AlThani B,
  • Alghamedy F,
  • Alotaibi H,
  • Saadah A,
  • Alanzi T

Journal volume & issue
Vol. Volume 12
pp. 117 – 131

Abstract

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Fahad Alanezi,1 Anan Aljahdali,2 Seham M Alyousef,3 Hebah Alrashed,4 Hayat Mushcab,5 Bashair AlThani,6 Fatemah Alghamedy,1 Hessa Alotaibi,7 Amjad Saadah,8 Turki Alanzi8 1Community College, Imam Abdulrahman Bin Faisal University, Dammam, Saudi Arabia; 2Biological Science Department, Faculty of Science, University of Jeddah, Jeddah, Saudi Arabia; 3Community and Psychiatric Mental Health Nursing Department, Nursing College, King Saud University, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia; 4King Saud University, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia; 5Johns Hopkins Aramco Healthcare, Dhahran, Saudi Arabia; 6Business Management College, Imam Abdulrahman Bin Faisal University, Dammam, Saudi Arabia; 7Art College, Imam Abdulrahman Bin Faisal University, Dammam, Saudi Arabia; 8Health Information Management and Technology Department, College of Public Health, Imam Abdulrahman Bin Faisal University, Dammam, Saudi ArabiaCorrespondence: Turki AlanziHealth Information Management and Technology Department, College of Public Health, Imam Abdulrahman Bin Faisal University, King Faisal Road, Dammam 31441, Saudi ArabiaTel/Fax +966 133331211Email [email protected]: The objective of this study was to compare the strategies adopted by the United Kingdom, Italy, China, India, and Saudi Arabia to contain the spread of the COVID-19 pandemic.Materials and Methods: A review of the literature was carried out to collect data on the strategies used by China, Italy, India, the United Kingdom, and Saudi Arabia to contain the spread of the COVID-19 virus. The global analysis of 65 published literature references allowed observing the effectiveness and efficiency of the strategies used by these countries to control the spread of the COVID-19 virus.Results: Both mitigation and suppression strategies were adopted by the United Kingdom, India, Italy, China, and Saudi Arabia to control the spread of the COVID-19 pandemic. It was observed that China has achieved a greater success in flattening the curve compared to the other countries. In China, few new daily cases have occurred since March, and it has been the only country that has managed to keep the COVID-19 pandemic under control. On the other hand, reductions in the number of daily cases (since May 2020) were detected in the United Kingdom, Italy, and Saudi Arabia (since July 2020). Also, during the last 3 months (June, July and August) India has shown the highest growth in the total number of confirmed cases and in the number of new daily cases, compared to the mentioned countries.Conclusion: The review of the strategies adopted by China, India, the United Kingdom, Italy and Saudi Arabia to combat the COVID-19 pandemic can guide countries in the design and development of mitigation and suppression approaches to control the spread of the COVID-19 virus. Containment strategies such as lockdowns cannot continue in the long term. Therefore, countries must adopt mitigation and prevention strategies to protect people from infection and learn to live with the virus.Keywords: COVID-19 outbreak, mitigation and suppression strategies, lockdown strategy, novel coronavirus, pandemic

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