محمد آسایی اردکانی

In December 2019, a new disease was reported in China that spread rapidly worldwide. This disease is called COVID-19, a viral infection of the coronavirus family. COVID-19 has caused health, social and economic problems around the world. In Iran, the first disease cases were reported in February 2020. This article aimed to describe the results of the fourth step of the National Mobilization Plan against the COVID-19 pandemic.

The information used in this cross-sectional-descriptive study is based on the data recorded in the computer program (Portal) of the Network Management Center of the Ministry of Health and Medical Education.The fourth step was devised to manage and control the COVID-19 pandemic with public participation and coordination between departments. It comprised four teams, including contact tracing, home care, supervisory, and support teams. Excel 2016 software was used to analyze the present study's data, and ArcMap software version 10.8 was applied to draw thermal maps.

In this study, every contact-tracing team consisted of 3.2 members. This number was equal to 3.2, 2.9, and 3.8 people per team for supportive, home care, and supervisory teams, respectively. Also, on average, the contact-tracing teams tracked 135.9 cases per team. This number was 518.6 visits per team for supervisory teams, 75.3 for home care teams, and 52.2 households for support teams. During the program's implementation, 3065.3 PCR tests and 3596.7 rapid tests were taken per 100,000 population, of which 15.5% were positive. The average contact tracing in people with close contact with the infected people was 4.87 per patient with a positive test.

The COVID-19 pandemic challenged all political, economic, social, and health policies and revealed the governments’ inadequencies. Statistical evidence suggests that the measures taken to manage and control COVID-19 in Iran have been valuable and effective. Still, this process depends on the persistence of policies and protocols by the government and society.

COVID-19, caused by a novel beta-coronavirus known as SARS-CoV-2, was first identified in China in late December 2019. The coronavirus outbreak was officially announced in Iran on February 19, 2020. The official report of the virus spread throughout the country was announced in mid-March 2020. While expanding the coverage of the “Each Home as a Health Post” (HAHP) program, universities recruited health messengers and health volunteers and trained them with the educational content “A Guide to Live with COVID-19”.

This study is a descriptive cross-sectional study. The sampling method was the census method. The required data were extracted using the integrated health system and the portal of the Ministry of Health and Medical Education’s Primary Health Network Management Center. Data were analyzed using descriptive and analytical statistical methods.

The numbers of household health messengers and health volunteers were 11,134,290 and 280,619, respectively. The highest total number of health volunteers and health messengers, with 824803 people, were in Shahid Beheshti University, and the lowest, with 7088 people in Gerash, Iran. Households with health messengers were 11656389, covering 50.1% of Iranian households. The national average score of trained messengers in the COVID-19 training course was 79.2%. In 22 universities/colleges, 100% of the health messengers passed the COVID-19 training course.

Implementing the HAHP program has effectively controlled COVID-19 spread by increasing awareness and promoting self-care in the community. Health messengers and health volunteers were the essential elements of the HAHP program. They identified and referred patients to selected COVID-19 care centers, improving care and services such as interception and support.