As governments, donors, and program implementers reflect on key lessons from the COVID-19 response to strengthen and build health systems that can withstand future pandemics and health crises, these early adopters are identifying ways to transition from emergency to routine COVID-19 vaccination and testing and treatment within the primary health care system. WHO and UNICEF have produced guidance to assist countries with mainstreaming their COVID-19 vaccination activities into primary health care, immunization programs and other essential health services. The USAID integration definition builds on the WHO/UNICEF vaccination integration definition.1 WHO’s six building blocks on health systems provide a useful framework for countries to consider how to plan integration and/or coordination between COVID-19 programming, immunization programmes, and the broader health system. At the same time, and in alignment with the WHO and UNICEF operational framework for primary health care (PHC), there is a need to recognize the importance of engaging and co-creating strategies and approaches for demand promotion and uptake within communities. USAID’s COVID-19 integration compendium takes these factors into account. This document provides links to a collection of integration briefs, each of which includes helpful resources and illustrative examples of successful country integration activities per health system building block. To move the needle on integration, multiple interventions may be more successful when implemented together, optimizing service coverage, equity, and the delivery of patient-centered services. Integration plans can be structured in different ways: 1) phased (with incremental interventions over time); 2) scenario-based (with established epidemiological trigger points to respond to renewed outbreaks), and 3) health system-based with clearly delineated interventions at each level of the health system.
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- COVID-19 Integration into Primary Health Care Resource Collection and Country Examples