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Experiences of COVID-19 in Saudi Arabia: 2020–2021

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  09 June 2022

Abdullah Ghaleb Alshareef Open the ORCID record for Abdullah Ghaleb Alshareef [Opens in a new window]
Abdullah Ghaleb Alshareef*
Affiliation:
Health Service Management Department, School of Business, University of Jeddah, Jeddah, UJ-20-062-DR, Saudi Arabia
*
Corresponding author: Abdullah Ghaleb Alshareef, Email: agalshareef@uj.edu.sa.
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Abstract

In Saudi Arabia and around the world, the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic is a significant public health problem. This paper explores the strategies that Saudi Arabia took to control COVID-19 from March 2020 to July 2021 and highlights some considerations regarding the ongoing COVID-19 response. The high testing capacity adopted by the Saudi Government and the country’s strong adherence to public health guidelines may have created conditions that stemmed the spread of COVID-19 in Saudi Arabia.

In this position paper, 3 government tools of governance that were utilized to address the problem of COVID-19 are identified: social regulation, interorganizational collaboration, and public information. The governance tools detailed in this research are frequently used to alleviate public health concerns, which is important as the use of governance tools to implement policy is the trend of the future. Public–private partnerships and strategic alliances are also viable options to confront national issues such as the COVID-19 pandemic.

Keywords

COVID-19Tools of governancePublic healthSocial regulationsPublic policy
Type
Report from the Field
Information
Disaster Medicine and Public Health Preparedness , Volume 17 , 2023 , e203
Copyright
© The Author(s), 2022. Published by Cambridge University Press on behalf of Society for Disaster Medicine and Public Health, Inc.

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