• Azam Raoofi, Amirhossein Takian, Hajar Haghighi, Afsaneh Rajizadeh, Zeinab Rezaei, Samera Radmerikhi, Alireza Olyaeemanesh, and Ali Akbari Sari.
• Department of Health Management, Policy & Economics, School of Public Health, Tehran University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran.
• Arch Iran Med. 2021 Mar 1; 24 (3): 260-272.

BackgroundSince December 2019, the world has been facing one of the most critical health threats of the last decades. In March 2021, the official number of deaths passed 2.6 million worldwide. Most countries have developed policies to control the disease. Nevertheless, countries have experienced different outcomes related to their various adapted policies. Complementing our first report, in this article, we report our findings of comparing the policies adopted to combat coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) in Iran, with those from nine selected countries, including China, Japan, South Korea, Singapore, Germany, the United States, the United Kingdom, Spain, and Italy, to draw evidence-informed policy lessons.MethodsThis is a qualitative study conducted based on document analysis related to COVID-19 policies in Iran and nine selected countries. Using a deductive approach, data were extracted and analyzed based on the components of the WHO Building Blocks Framework. Finally, we compared the Iranian policies with the nine selected countries.ResultsDocuments analysis revealed a spectrum of policies, which have led to a variety of outcomes. Based on our findings, three main strategies (widespread testing, comprehensive contact tracing, and timely measures) were the most effective directions to combat COVID-19.ConclusionThe experience of the first and second waves of COVID-19 showed that the risk of coronavirus is serious and will continue until a vaccine or decisive treatment is achieved. Therefore, countries are required to adopt appropriate and tailored policies to deal with this crisis effectively. Applying the experiences from the previous waves is essential for more efficient performance in the likely upcoming waves.© 2021 The Author(s). This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

21 keywords...

hide…