Our global response plan to Covid-19

Guides and themes

Since December 2019, an epidemic of Coronavirus COVID-19 has been spreading around the world. Coronaviruses are a large family of viruses which cause illnesses ranging from the common cold (some seasonal viruses are Coronaviruses) to more severe illnesses such as MERS-COV and SARS. Since March 11th, 2020, the WHO has labelled the global situation of COVID-19 as a pandemic.

To date, 35,027,547 confirmed COVID-19 cases have been detected and the COVID-19 outbreak has caused 1,034,837 deaths in 235 countries, areas or territories¹. In this particular context, COVID-19 poses a devastating threat to many of the world’s poorest countries. To this end, low- and medium-income countries are majorly affected. The crisis is not only hitting the health capacities of the states, as it is turning it into a political, social, environmental and economic crisis.

The healthcare systems in these countries are often highly vulnerable and not prepared to manage such a large influx of cases.

The situations vary a lot from country to country and there is a diverse range of interventions that will continue in the short and longer term. Therefore, the situation will require adapting a diversified set of responses.

To date Médecins du Monde has been implementing programs to fight COVID-19 in 67 countries on all continents, including low-income countries (eg. Burkina Faso, CAR, DRC, Uganda, Madagascar, Ethiopia, Yemen, Nepal), middle-income countries (such as Iraq, Lebanon, Palestine, Egypt, Colombia, Mexico, Pakistan, Philippines) and high-income countries, where the Médecins du Monde chapters have their domestic programs. However, there is an urgent need to intensify and solidify the response through a comprehensive approach.