The JMIR Public Health and Surveillance viewpoint COVID-19 Crisis in Jordan: Response, Scenarios, Strategies, and Recommendations examines Jordan’s early response to COVID-19 and proposes scenarios and strategies for managing the pandemic. Published on 7 July 2020, it reviews containment measures, projected case scenarios, health-system preparedness, contact tracing, clinical management, primary healthcare continuity and the role of civil society.
Key Insights
By 12 April 2020, Jordan had confirmed 389 COVID-19 cases and had introduced travel restrictions, curfews, social distancing and the Defence Law.
Figure 2 on page 3 models three scenarios for the end of April 2020: about 3,009 cases under a pessimistic scenario, 1,015 under an average scenario and 538 under an optimistic scenario.
The article emphasizes rapid case detection, active contact tracing, stronger surveillance and the use of digital technologies to identify cases, contacts and high-risk areas.
Health-system preparedness required more ICU capacity, ventilators, laboratory testing and trained epidemiologists and healthcare workers.
Primary healthcare services should continue during emergencies, particularly vaccination, newborn screening, family planning, chronic disease care, mental health and communicable disease surveillance.
Civil society organizations were identified as important partners for awareness, health services, WASH, social protection and support to refugees and vulnerable communities.
The main recommendation is to combine strong containment measures with continued essential services and economic activity, supported by public communication, stronger workforce capacity and collaboration with private and nongovernmental sectors.
