COVINFORM - Baseline Report: Governmental Responses

COVINFORM provides an in-depth analysis of the behavioural, social, and economic impacts of the outbreak multi-dimensional responses from governmental entities, NGOs, international organizations, and additional relevant stakeholders. More in particular, the current workload of Work Package 4 (WP4: Government responses and impact assessment) gives focus on the governmental responses towards COVID-19. Based on a large desktop research conducted by the consortium partners among their fourteen respective countries, the main outcomes of this deliverable summarise and assess the responses per country in terms of governmental structures, social, legal, cultural, and economic factors influencing the governmental measures and responses towards COVID-19, adaptations to vulnerable groups as well media representation. The majority of the States that have been included in this study, in regard to governmental structure, have adopted a central-government approach, issuing additional administrative powers to central points of authority such as Ministries instead of regional administrative entities. Moreover, regarding socio-economic, cultural, and legal factors, close family ties was a common identified phenomenon which depend on the percentage of diversity in each case. In addition, States have identified vulnerabilities based on health, cultural, economic, and social factors, whereas the needs of the elderly population, minorities, single-parent families, citizens, and businesses struck by COVID-19, were prioritized in most cases. Concluding, regarding the official communication efforts, a centralized communication strategy was adopted by most states, which utilized live press briefings on contemporary COVID-19 data via renown epidemiologists and state officials. The governments of the States in this research have also utilized a wide range of platforms and means to convey timely COVID-19 related information such as official websites, radio, newspapers, social media platforms and flyers. An initial comparative discussion with further recommendations that will fit to the next iterations of the empirical research will be also provided