Does the Prosperity of a Country Play a Role in COVID-19 Outcomes?

OBJECTIVE: This study aims to clarify the association between prosperity and the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) outcomes and its impact on the future management of pandemics. METHODS: This is an observational study using information from 2 online registries. The numbers of infected individuals and deaths and the prosperity rank of each country were obtained from worldometer.info and the Legatum Institute's Prosperity Index, respectively. RESULTS: There is a combination of countries with high and low prosperity on the list of COVID-19-infected countries. The risk of the virus pandemic seems to be more extensive in countries with high prosperity. A Spearman's rho test confirmed a significant correlation between prosperity, the number of COVID-19 cases, and the number of deaths at the 99% level. CONCLUSION: New emerging pandemics affect all nations. In order to increase the likelihood of successfully managing future events, it is important to consider preexisting health security, valid population-based management approaches, medical decision-making, communication, continuous assessment, triage, treatment, early and complete physical distancing strategies, and logistics. These elements cannot be taught on-site and on occasion. There is a need for innovative and regular educational activities for all stakeholders committed to safeguarding our future defense systems concerning diagnostic, protection, treatment, and rehabilitation in pandemics, as well as other emergencies.

A Coronavirus (COVID-19) Triage Framework for (Sub)National Public-Private Partnership (PPP) Programs

Around the world, countries are struggling to address the immediate and long-term impacts of the novel coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic on their (sub)national public-private partnership (PPP) programs. Burdened with the real possibility of widespread project failures and constrained budgets, governments are searching for ways to prioritize projects in need of relief and bolster post-pandemic recovery plans. To meet this need, this article conceptualizes a triage system for PPP programs based on five categories: (1) projects without a need for economic stimulus (blue);(2) projects experiencing minor economic/financial losses (green);(3) projects needing temporary/stop-gap support or restructuring (yellow);(4) projects unable to survive without significant economic relief (red);and (5) projects that cannot survive, even with government intervention (black). This research also stresses the importance of launching and sustaining a crisis command center to support PPP triage decisions and encourages PPP stakeholders to collectively craft win-win solutions for post-pandemic recovery efforts.