Global Shortage of Personal Protective Equipment amid COVID-19: Supply Chains, Bottlenecks, and Policy Implications

This presentation discussed the unprecedented excess demand for PPEs due to the COVID-19 pandemic, which led to domestic and international PPE supply chain disruptions and put frontline healthcare workers at risk. It also discussed various trade barriers to PPE supply, how governments ramped up PPE production, ADB's own response to the COVID-19 pandemic, as well as policy implications and lessons learned from path health crises.

Strategies to Respond to COVID-19 in the Republic of South Korea

The approach taken by the Republic of Korea to the COVID-19 outbreak has been characterized as “trace, test, and treat” policy. Intensive contact tracing methods have been developed during the MERS outbreak in 2015. Contacts with a COVID-19 case are quarantined and tested for diagnosis. High availability of testing is essential for focused quarantine. Timely quarantine reduces the number of patients to treat, keeping the outbreak under control. In addition, asymptomatic transmission necessitates sufficient levels of social distancing.