The Performance of the Jordanian Health Sector during the COVID- 19 Pandemic| JULY 2020

The COVID-19 pandemic is an unprecedented crisis in modern history. On the 16^th of March 2020, the Jordanian government announced a full lockdown whose purpose was to truncate the spread of the pandemic after the first 26 confirmed cases. At the time, there were little, if any, global practices upon which the government could rely on in its response plan. After multiple iterations, the government successfully minimized physical human interactions (otherwise known as social distancing) by digitizing education, promoting telecommuting and online financial services, and providing limited time windows in which citizens can acquire their groceries.

Within the context of the above-mentioned measures, Jordan became the first out of 13 countries in the world that had the highest government response stringency. In fact, Jordan was the first country in the world to attain a perfect score (100/100) on the stringency index, and sustained the score for 34 days, which is the 6^th highest period in the world in terms of the longevity of the lockdown (Oxford, 2020). Those efforts translated to a large decrease in the number of cases in Jordan, deeming the government’s measures successful. It is worth noting that COVID-19 reporting in Jordan differentiates between local cases confirmed and cases among arrivals from abroad. This strategy is quite essential in order to reflect the reality of the COVID-19 status inside Jordan, in addition to ensuring the safety of all economic activities.

يقوم منتدى الاستراتيجيات الأردني بمشاركة المعلومات الاقتصادية المهمة التي يتم تجميعها من مصادر عالمية مختلفة؛ وذلك بهدف نشر الوعي حول الأمور الاقتصادية والاجتماعية والتوعية في ظل التغييرات التي يشهدها العالم وذلك لمواكبة آخر التطورات وطرح مجال للتفكير في حلول تعمل على تنمية وتعزيز الاقتصاد الوطني. Jordan Strategy Forum shares important economic information that is collected from various international sources; with the aim of raising economic and social awareness. This is done in order to track the latest developments and suggest solutions that would develop and strengthen the national economy