COVID-19 Health System Response Monitor Webinar:

What Strategies are Countries Using
to Get COVID-19 Vaccines to People in Hard-to-reach Groups?

Webinar: 8 June 2021, 12:00-13:00 CEST

ASPHER Young Professionals and authors of the analysis, Ines Siepmann and Shelby Fisher will be participating in a webinar on Country’s COVID-19 Vaccination Strategies for Hard-to-Reach Groups as part of the HSRM Webinar Series on the COVID-19 Response. Ines will give the Keynote and Shelby will serve as a Panelist. The webinar will be held June 8th, from 12:00-13:00 CEST. Be sure to check back to the HSRM Webinar Series page for more details to come.

Register here: https://eurohealthobservatory.who.int/news-room/events/item/2021/06/08/default-calendar/covid-19-vaccination-roll-out-meeting-the-needs-of-hard-to-reach-groups-now-and-beyond 

With limited COVID-19 vaccine supplies available during the first quarter of 2021, countries across Europe were faced with the difficult task of determining which demographic groups to prioritise for vaccination.

Most countries globally have opted to protect the population groups who are most vulnerable to severe cases and death from COVID-19, namely older populations and those who experience high rates of exposure (i.e. health and social care workers). In the next phase of the vaccine rollout, governments must choose whether or not to continue vaccinating those most at risk of severe disease and death (i.e. individuals with comorbidities) or those most prone to spreading the virus (i.e. essential workers). The fraught ethics of these vaccine prioritisation decisions are further complicated by the disproportionate burden of COVID-19 on Europe’s hard-to-reach populations, such as homeless, migrant, and travelling populations.

It is thus crucial that governments go beyond acknowledging the needs of hard-to-reach populations and instead prepare to act. This entails decreasing barriers to vaccination information and distribution through methods such as providing information in multiple languages; providing non-technology reliant information; collaborating with community leaders and groups who already engage with hard-to-reach populations to facilitate trust; and creating more mobile and flexible options for vaccine delivery and administration. The need to develop these strategies grows more immediate as Europe enters a third wave and simultaneously strengthens its vaccine response to include additional priority groups.

Read the full COVID-19 Health System Response Monitor Cross-Country Analysis here.

Siepmann I, Fisher S, Wong BLH, Martin-Moreno JM. What Strategies Are Countries Using To Get COVID-19 Vaccines To People In Hard-to-reach Groups? COVID-19 HSRP Cross-Country Analysis. 04-05-2021.
URL: https://analysis.covid19healthsystem.org/index.php/2021/05/04/how-have-additional-government-measures-differed-in-response-to-the-recent-emergence-of-variants-of-concern-2/