By Raniah Zamzamy

As we are working so hard to maintain our systems and to control the number of incidents of COVID-19, the work for recovery after the end of this pandemic may not get the same level of attention.

We are not talking about the systems only but we include individual’s daily life as some will be affected financially, mentally, and physically.

Special groups like elderly and disabled people; and systems such as education and social support will need extra efforts to recover. How can we be prepared? This is what we will focus here.

Analyzing data

There is tremendous amount of data for all systems. Looking at the data will give us an estimation of number of people who will need mental health, number of children who suffered from domestic violence, number of businesses that lost workers, number of students who will need extra attention next year, and type of social cultural trends that come up during this period. These data would shape the future of public as well as services in the community.

Brainstorming solutions

Since COVID-19 influences every system then we should work in recovery phase as a team as we are fighting it now. Integrated projects and policies are the main objectives for solutions, at the same time it must be precise and clear. Effective solutions should be:

• Attractive in applications

• Target public benefit desire to adhere to it

• Low cost and sustainable

These solutions must rectify the overload of public requests for services, the potential increase of commercial products price, and decrease precaution behavior gradually.

Testing

Testing and evaluation for suggested solutions to measure the community tolerance for it before general implementation. Testing is a fundamental step for the success of recovery and maintaining a healthy recovery baseline. Therefore, it is important to give it time and budget, as it, will determine if the solution meets all effectiveness specifications.

To conclude, fighting COVID-19 is consuming huge amount of resources and by the end of this fight our systems will be exhausted to the extent authorities may not be able to efficiently manage healthy recovery. Unless we work for this step now and study the current situation as well we would not be able to predict the future

(The writer is a graduated from La Salle University with Master of Public Health Degree. Writer of Health Issues in Public Health book in 2018. Participated in couple of research. She is a public health specialist working at Saudi Center for Disease Prevention and Control.)