Responding to COVID-19: MSF Global Accountability Report, Part 1

In countries with robust health systems, MSF’s operational focus is in offering expertise in handling complex emergencies and advising on public health approaches, taking pressure off overstretched health facilities, ensuring health care workers are protected, and caring for vulnerable populations. In conflict zones, humanitarian crises, and low-resource settings with fragile health systems, MSF’s priority is to ensure that medical teams are able to provide lifesaving care and safely manage potential COVID-19 patients. MSF is also focused on maintaining or adapting crucial medical activities, including treatment for HIV and tuberculosis, measles vaccination campaigns, malaria prevention, and the fight against other infectious disease outbreaks, such as cholera or Ebola.

This report covers the period from March through May 2020, and traces some earlier activities back to the beginning of the year. It provides an account of how MSF projects around the globe have shifted gears to accelerate outbreak preparedness and adapt activities in response to the evolution of the COVID-19 pandemic (Chapter 4). The report looks at key data from MSF activities in Europe—the epicenter of the pandemic from March to late May (Chapter 5). It also discusses MSF’s approach in managing the major staffing, logistics, supply, and financial challenges of responding to COVID-19 (Chapter 6).