Delivering public health interventions

Abstract Public health has faced unprecedented pressures from the dual demands of responding to the COVID-19 pandemic while maintaining delivery of essential public health services such as screening and vaccinations. At the beginning of the pandemic, public health efforts turned towards implementing appropriate preventative health measures to control or mitigate transmission, while the rollout of COVID-19 vaccines has started since late 2020. Preventative public health measures to control or mitigate transmission include observing hygiene guidelines; using personal protective equipment (such as masks); limiting contact through physical distancing measures, curfews, bans on non-essential persons' movement and closing schools, businesses, as well as regional and national borders. All these measures have been supported, with Find, Test, Trace, Isolate, and Support (FTTIS) services, but many countries have struggled to implement these successfully, even months into the pandemic. While organisations such as the ECDC have issued guidance on implementing such interventions depending on the epidemiological situation, national strategies have ultimately depended on the countr