Abstract
COVID-19 has taken a toll on the global health delivery system, compromising its dexterity to provide efficient and effective health care to societies. For other countries, the pandemic only exacerbated the woes that already existed in the health delivery system. In others, the pandemic shocked the existing systems that appeared ready to deal with infectious pandemics. Apparently, the COVID-19 pandemic had multi-pronged impacts on the health systems that resulted in reciprocal feedback from the health systems, which determined the new patterns and characteristics of COVID-19-related variables. An understanding of the COVID-19-health systems nexus is fundamental for building frameworks for efficient and effective health systems that are resilient and sustainable in the face of the current and future prowling pandemics. This book adopted a diverse and multi-pronged methodological approach to examine the COVID-19-health systems nexus in Zimbabwe, covering a broad range of concepts related to COVID-19 and health systems. The findings show that the World Health Organization’s building blocks for health systems in Zimbabwe have been largely weak to effectively manage the COVID-19 pandemic owing to the socio-economic and political instability of that country. Consequently, the health system was further suffocated and disparaged by the pandemic. In turn, the health system reciprocated by determining the trends and dynamics of various COVID-19-related variables, including mortality risks, vaccination issues, policy responses, cases and deaths, among other concepts and variables. The results point to the need for concerted efforts towards a framework that ensures the convergence of the Global Health Security and the Universal Health Coverage philosophies to build health systems that are resilient and sustainable in the context of existing and impending lethal pandemics.
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Chapungu, L., Dube, K., Chikodzi, D. (2023). Introduction: COVID-19-Health Systems Nexus—The Trends and Dynamics. In: Chapungu, L., Chikodzi, D., Dube, K. (eds) The COVID-19 - Health Systems Nexus. Global Perspectives on Health Geography. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-21602-2_1
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