Direct and indirect effects of the covid-19 pandemic and response in South Asia

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Chapter 1

Background

Given the challenges faced by South Asian countries prior to the current pandemic, the potential impact of

COVID-19 pandemic response on the health and well-being of 1.8 billion people was a serious cause for concern.

Governments in these countries would need to balance the need for controlling the pandemic within their borders, along with the impact cessation and/or disruption of critical primary health and other services could have on the health

and well-being of the most vulnerable of their populations. Notwithstanding the aforementioned health effects, it was recognized that indirect effects of mitigation measures could be much greater than those related to disruption of health services alone. The pathways through which COVID-19 pandemic and response could indirectly impact maternal, child and adolescent health and well-being are presented in Figure 3.

that will help guide their decisions on when to ease/lift COVID-19 mitigation measures. To address this urgent issue, we conducted a series of modelling exercises

Figure 3: A conceptual framework for the indirect impact of COVID-19 pandemic and response on maternal, child and adolescent health and well-being

At this unprecedented time, governments need information implemented to curb the spread of COVID-19 on maternal

and child mortality, educational attainment of children, and general economy. We also estimated the potential benefits of mitigation strategies to address these anticipated

to assess the expected mortality, hospitalizations and multi-sectoral challenges focused on the six most populous intensive care unit (ICU) admissions due to COVID-19 itself, countries in South Asia: Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Nepal, as well as the impact of nationwide stay-at-home orders India, Pakistan and Sri Lanka.

© UNICEF/Bangladesh/UN0354647/Kiron/2020