Strategies, experiences and limitations of each country’s response
| Pandemic responses | Australia | South Africa | Egypt | Nigeria |
| Strategy | National COVID-19 Primary Care Response; rapid introduction of telehealth; targeting of high-risk priority populations | Strong political leadership | Quarantine hospitals assigned in in every governate | National leadership with regular communications about government actions and rationale |
| Experiences | GP “fever” clinics and vaccination; large, centralised hubs and in-reach programmes to hard-to-reach communities | Good communication; separate PC streams for those with and without COVID-19-related symptoms | World Bank funding assisted implementation of Universal Health Insurance Law providing more equitable access to healthcare | PC and PH worked together to conduct health education on testing and vaccination |
| Limitations | Could have been earlier access to PPE and initial vaccine supply | Insufficient community engagement to coordinate care; poor laboratory services; focus on major hospitals and ICU beds | Inadequate PPE and other resource supply; integration between PH and PC, testing capacity and vaccine roll-out could be improved | Poor remuneration and resourcing of PC workforce; professional ‘brain drain’ to other countries; suboptimal border control and surveillance measures; slow diagnosis and treatment of COVID-19 cases; poor vaccination roll-out |
GP, general practitioner; ICU, intensive care unit; PC, primary care; PH, public health; PPE, personal protective equipment.