COVINFORM - Analysis: Government responses to COVID- 19 and impact assessment

This report focuses on describing and assessing government response to the COVID-19 pandemic. It contains findings from empirical research that is ongoing with government experts and stakeholders from COVINFORM target countries. These findings are supported by the analysis of EU and target countries’ government responses, previously conducted and included in the COVINFORM baseline report “D4.1 Baseline Report Governmental responses”. In this way, this report updates the COVINFORM baseline report and informs future research in the project. Specifically, the empirical research covered the following five dimensions of government responses: Pandemic planning and preparedness Governmental approaches to defining and addressing vulnerability Responses on multiple levels of governance Economic and social welfare responses Socio-political, legal, and ethical factors influencing government preparedness and response To explore these dimensions, the report uses primary data collected through interviews with relevant experts and stakeholders in the target countries in the context of Work Package (WP) 4 “Government responses and impact assessment”. Secondary data, including those from previously published COVINFORM reports, complement and enrich these primary data. The report is organized as follows. After an introductory chapter (Chapter 1), the report presents its methods for empirical research (Chapter 2) and provides main demographic information of the sample population of the empirical research (Chapter 3). Following, the report describes the previously mentioned dimensions of government response across five chapters, each one focusing on one dimension, as listed above. Chapter 4 focuses on government planning and preparedness. Chapter 5 focuses on governmental approaches to defining and addressing vulnerability. Chapter 6 focuses on COVID-19 responses on multiple levels of governance. Chapter 7 focuses on economic and social welfare responses to COVID-19. Chapter 8 focuses on socio-political, legal, and ethical factors influencing government preparedness and response. Each of these chapters includes: An introduction to the government response as applied in the EU and target countries, basedon secondary data from literature review and previous COVINFORM reports An analysis of the government response as examined from the empirical research and relatedinterviews A short summary of the findings that also include recommendations for the next interviewrounds. Finally, a