Healthcare in Russia during the COVID-19 pandemic: challenges, systemic issues, and addressing priorities

ABSTRACT

The new SARS-CoV-2 (COVID-19) coronavirus pandemic has placed unprecedented strains on healthcare systems worldwide. How-ever, the Russian Federation has demonstrated a high level of preparedness to combat the COVID-19 pandemic. First, it was re-flected in the quick reallocation of resources toward the efficient provision of medical care for patients with COVID-19. To that end, temporary hospitals were set up specifically for such patients, and the existing bed capacity was reassigned. In addition, routing schemes for patients with acute respiratory viral infections (ARVI) and community-acquired pneumonia were developed and approved. Also, provisional rules were approved for recording information and maintaining an information resource to pre-vent the spread of COVID-19 using the unified state health information system. Furthermore, from December 2020, our country began a large-scale vaccination of the adult population against COVID-19, and from January 2021, mass vaccination against CO-VID-19 was started. The mobilization of the country's human resources to combat the pandemic and the timely communication of relevant clinical guidelines to physicians enabled an effective response to the challenges of the COVID-19 pandemic. The re-turn of the healthcare system to a normal mode of operation is a high priority at the present stage. Copyright © 2022, Media Sphera Publishing Group. All rights reserved.