The second round of a WHO pulse survey suggests that more than one year since the COVID-19 pandemic began, considerable disruptions still prevail, with nearly 90% of countries still reporting one or more interruptions to essential health services. There appears to be no consequential change worldwide since the first survey was conducted in the summer of last year.

However, within countries, the extent of disruptions has generally shown a decrease. In 2020, countries reported that, on average, around half of the essential health services were interrupted, but in the first 3 months of 2021, progress was reported, with only over a third of services now being interrupted.

This survey addresses 63 core health services across delivery platforms and health areas. It was sent to 216 countries and territories across the six WHO regions and 135 responses were returned from senior ministry of health officials from January through March 2021… (WHO, April 23, 2021)