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Public Health Emergencies of International Concern

Mpox

On 14 August 2024, the World Health Organization announced that an upsurge of mpox in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) and a growing number of countries in Africa constitutes a public health emergency of international concern (PHEIC) under International Health Regulations (IHR).

Mpox is a disease with symptoms similar to smallpox. It can be transmitted by animals and humans, through contact with bodily fluids, lesions on the skin or on internal mucosal surfaces, respiratory droplets and via contaminated objects.

Pharmacists may find Key facts from the WHO of use.

The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has issued advice on how people can protect themselves from mpox. Click here.

Mpox has been reported in the DRC for more than a decade. In July 2022, the WHO declared mpox a PHEIC. That declaration was ended in May 2023. One of the main reasons for the second declaration in August 2024 was the emergence of a new virus strain (clade 1b), its rapid spread in eastern DRC, and the reporting of cases in several neighbouring countries. The WHO Director-General is expected to share the report of an IHR Emergency Committee meeting on mpox and, based on the advice of this committee, issue recommendations to countries.

 

COVID-19 Information Hub

On 5 May 2023, the World Health Organization declared that COVID-19 no longer a Public Health Emergency of International Concern. However, this does not mean that the disease is no longer a global threat, the WHO said.

FIP guidance

FIP Guidance 
& summaries

 

FIP resources

Other
FIP
resources

 

Online programme

FIP COVID-19

Online Programme 
(webinars)


COVID-19 vaccinations

 

 

Resources from around the world

Resources from
organisations
around the world

 

pharmacy heroes campaign

#PharmacyHeroes 
Campaign
 

Questions

Questions from
FIP members


 

articles

Articles

 

FIP Timeline

FIP COVID-19 
Timeline

In memoriam

In memoriam

       

 

FIP Guidance on COVID-19

This guidance is based on the available evidence and the recommendations of reputable organisations such as the World Health Organization, the United States and the European Centres for Disease Control and Prevention, and others, at the time of publishing. Knowledge on COVID-19 is rapidly changing and recommendations may change accordingly. Although FIP will strive to keep these guidelines up to date, we recommend consulting the websites of these organisations and any newly available evidence for the most recent updates. Our guidance is divided into four sections. Guidance specifically for community, hospital and clinical biology sectors can be found in Section 2 “Guidelines for pharmacists and the pharmacy workforce”. The guidance is supplemented with summaries and it is accessible here.

 

Other FIP resources

   

FIP supporting statement on the WHO declaration that the COVID-19 pandemic is no longer a Public Health Emergency of International Concern

       
   


FIP call to action to support pharmacists and pharmacy workers on the coronavirus/COVID-19 frontline 
This call to action is also available in ArabicChineseFrench, Greek, ItalianMontenegrin, PortugueseRussian, Serbian and Spanish. More translations to come.

 

COVID-19 vaccinations

Argentina: According to a report on 6 January 2021, 39,599 doses of Sputnik V have been administered to health care professionals.1,088 adverse events were registered, of which 97.7% were mild.

Australia: Pharmacies began to vaccinate in mid-2021, when the vaccination will be extended to groups of the general population (more here). The requirements for training and certifying pharmacists as vaccinators have been modified to allow the theoretical part of this training to be done online; also, the requirement for pharmacists to have a prior first-aid certificate is temporarily waived (more here). Starting around May 2021, community pharmacies were paid up to AUD 48 (EUR 30) to vaccinate patients. However, they needed to ensure that they were able to continue to provide their regular important services to their local communities, health minister Greg Hunt said, according to a report in The Sunday Telegraph in January 2021. Australia began its mass COVID-19 vaccination programme in February 2021 and pharmacists were among the frontline healthcare staff receiving the first doses. Plans were for the population to be vaccinated by the end of October 2021, with the majority to receive the AstraZeneca vaccine produced locally. In preparation for Australia’s vaccine rollout, the Australian Government has partnered with the Australian College of Nursing to develop accredited training modules, which are freely accessible to all authorised COVID-19 vaccination providers, including pharmacists. Australia’s policy for vaccinating the population against COVID-19 was updated last year. This stated that pharmacists are licensed to varying degrees in each state and territory to administer vaccines and are likely to play a role in COVID-19 vaccination for “some part of the population (e.g. healthy adults) at some stage, depending on the safety profile of the vaccines”. Pharmacists in primary care clinics and general practice began to administer vaccines in March 2021 and community pharmacists, in June 2021. More here.

Brazil: In January 2021, the country announced that it would manufacture the Russian vaccine Sputnik V, but that the entire production would be exported to other Latin American countries that had already approved the vaccine, including Argentina and Bolivia. Also in January last year, Reuters reported on a Brazilian study indicating that China’s Sinovac vaccine is 78% effective but experts have called for more transparency on the data. In March 2021, pharmacy chain RaiaDrogasil began delivering free vaccinations in partnership with the municipality of Sao Paulo, as part of the national immunisation programme.

Canada: The Canadian Pharmacists Association and Neighbourhood Pharmacies have issued recommendations on COVID-19 vaccines and pharmacy readiness. Roll out plans were being developed by provincial and territorial governments according to Canada’s 7-point COVID-19 Immunization Plan and NACI’s Recommendations for Use of Coronavirus Vaccines. Priority populations include seniors, healthcare workers, long-term care residents and indigenous communities. The overall goal was to receive enough COVID-19 vaccines to start vaccinating all Canadians by March 2021 and have 100% of the population vaccinated by December last year. However, it is still unclear what the responsibilities and activities of the pharmacy workforce will be, or what (if any) additional training may be required. More here. In April 2021, the Canadian Pharmacists Association reported that although most provinces had started to roll out vaccines to pharmacies, less than half of had been included and many had not received access to all approved vaccine types, leaving access to vaccines still limited in many regions. More here.

Europe: manifesto to encourage healthcare professionals to get vaccinated against COVID-19 was published on 9 February 2021 by the European Coalition for Vaccination. A statement on flu vaccination 2021-2022 was released by the Pharmaceutical Group of the European Union on 9 September 2021. Watch here how young people have a role to play against COVID-19 in Europe.

France: The minister of health has said that the government will engage all health professionals — including pharmacists — in mass vaccination when more vaccines are available, but there is not yet a published document on how this will be implemented, according to a report from the French Chamber of Pharmacists in January 2021. A month later, the French National Health Authority issued an opinion in favour of COVID-19 vaccination by community pharmacists and midwives of people aged between 50 and 64 years with the AstraZeneca vaccine (more here). In March 2021, pharmacists started to vaccinate people over the age of 55 years with risk factors. Following an enabling decree by the government, by the summer community pharmacists should also be able to prescribe and administer COVID-19 vaccines to all adults except pregnant women, people with haemostasis disorder and people with a history of an anaphylactic reaction to one of the vaccines or who have had an anaphylactic reaction to the first injection.

Ireland: The Irish Government’s National COVID-19 Vaccination Strategy and Implementation Plan explicitly include community pharmacies alongside GPs as vaccine access locations. Below are three recent Statutory Instruments (i.e. Ministerial Regulations) that are relevant:

• S.I. No. 698 of 2020 allows COVID-19 vaccination by a range of persons including community pharmacists wherever deemed suitable and also covers records required;
• S.I. No. 1 of 2021 allows hospitals who do not hold wholesaler licences to supply COVID-19 vaccines to persons authorised to administer them, which would include community pharmacies;
• S.I. No. 2 of 2021 permits six doses of Comirnaty® (Pfizer) to be administered from each vial (instead of five)
Clinical Guidance for Covid‐19 Vaccination (6 January 2021)

Israel: A drop of 60% in hospital admissions after three weeks was the impact of a quick and efficient vaccination campaign (more here). Only 0.04% of people have caught the virus a week after the second vaccine dose and only 0.002% needed hospital treatment, according to data released by Israel’s health ministry (more here).

Italy: The region of Lombardy was the latest region to agree with health authorities that pharmacists should be able to carry out COVID-19 vaccinations, joining the Piedmont region in January 2021. It was envisaged that pharmacy-based vaccinations will cover people between 40 and 60 years of age and will begin at the end of March 2021, when more vaccines which can be stored in pharmacy refrigerators are available, Federfarma reported. Meanwhile, Federfarma also reported that the first phase of vaccination aimed at health and social health personnel in the Emilia Romagna region was completed in February 2021 and around 370,000 people aged over 80 years received a letter, giving them the option to use an affiliated pharmacy (in addition to telephone and internet) to make a booking for their first and second doses. However, the region’s pharmacies were not yet providing a vaccines administration service. In March 2021, the Italian government issued a decree authorising pharmacists to administer COVID-19 vaccines at pharmacies as part of the national vaccination campaign.

Jordan: Following the Jordanian Pharmacist Association’s Immuniser Pharmacist Project, which led to a national immunisation guide for pharmacists in 2019, the development of training modules and regulatory changes in August 2020, pharmacists were ready to join in COVID-19 vaccination services, the JPA reported in April 2021.

Norway: The Ministry of Health proposed legislative amendments to allow pharmacists to request COVID-19 vaccines, the Norwegian Pharmacy Association (NPA) reported in February 2021. With this change, municipalities will have access to 2,000 more health personnel who may play a crucial role in increasing the pace when vaccines supplies increase. It is very positive that the Minister of Health is coming up with this initiative now, while there is still time to prepare for mass vaccination in the municipalities, said Per T. Lund, CEO of the NPA. In March 2021, the NPA reported that the Ministry of Health and Care Services had adopted a temporary change in the regulations giving pharmacists in pharmacies the right to order COVID-19 vaccines to be administered in pharmacies. However, this right of requisition didn't mean that people could go directly to a pharmacy to get vaccinated. Pharmacies must first have an agreement with the municipality, which is tasked with delivering vaccines. In May 2021, the NPA reported that several pharmacies in Oslo had entered into an agreement with the municipality allowing them to vaccinate residents. This follows the successful vaccination in pharmacies of selected municipality health personnel in April 2021. It is estimated that with pharmacies involved, 120,000 people can be vaccinated per week. 

Philippines: Pharmacists are included in the Philippine National Deployment and Vaccination Plan for COVID-19 Vaccines. Following a two-day training period, community pharmacists in the Philippines started administering COVID vaccines in February 2021, the Philippine Pharmacists Association reported. 

Portugal: Engagement of pharmacies is among solutions being looked into to increase vaccination capacity, according to the government’s appointed task force coordinator Vice-Admiral Henrique Gouveia e Melo. Portuguese Pharmaceutical Society president, Ana Paula Martins, reiterated the availability for community pharmacists to collaborate, under terms agreed with the Ministry of Health. “We will come to a time when we will have to vaccinate almost 200,000 people per day. In this context, I am very convinced that pharmacies will surely be able to reach up to 50,000 vaccines per day", she told the media in February 2021. (More here). In March 2021, health authorities began contacting, scheduling and vaccinating almost 8,000 pharmacists who are on a list of those directly providing care compiled by the Portuguese Pharmaceutical Society. Also that month, Vice Admiral Henrique Gouveia e Melo talked about the possible entry of pharmacies in the second phase of the country’s vaccination plan, which started in April 2021. Meanwhile, the ANF (Associação Nacional das Farmácias) confirmed that pharmacists will play a role in mass vaccination centres in the municipality of Sintra.

South Africa: The Department of Health launched a campaign —“I choose vaccination because...” #VacciNation — in February 2021 to encourage all South Africans to get vaccinated against COVID-19. Pharmacists are among the health professionals around the country taking part in the campaign’s video messages

UK: The Adam Smith Institute published a position paper (4 January 2021) calling for the acceleration of vaccination against COVID-19, and one of the main measures proposed is vaccination in pharmacies. Some community pharmacies started administering vaccinations on 11 January 2021 (More here). The Tony Blair Institute published "A blueprint for accelerated vaccine rollout" on 6 January 2021. In February that year, NHS England announced that it would reopen the application process to pharmacies to apply to become designated vaccination sites in a list of “priority locations”, opening up the service to contractors who could provide up to 400 vaccinations per week when most contractors must be able to provide at least 1,000 vaccinations per week. As of February, there were 192 pharmacy-led local vaccination sites in England. There are around 11,700 community pharmacies in England. A new survey, released in April 2021 by CIG Research, revealed that community pharmacies in England can deliver in excess of 25 million COVID-19 vaccinations a year.

USA: Vaccination in pharmacies, limited to priority groups, has started (more here). Vaccinations in geriatric care centres are largely carried out by pharmacists (more here). Meanwhile, President Joe Biden advocated for the involvement of pharmacies and pharmacy-based vaccination in the context of COVID-19 (watch here) and using a network of local pharmacists has been held up as a shining example of a successful vaccination strategy in West Virginia in an NBC News report.

Resources from FIP members and others*

*Please note that this sharing of guidance and examples from our member organisations and others is not an endorsement of these materials and we can take no responsibility for their accuracy or their being up-to-date.

Africa

LiveWell Initiative: Guidance to support pharmacists in the African region in the management of COVID-19.

Argentina

Pharmaceutical Confederation of Argentina: "Protocolo COFA de actuación en la farmacia comunitaria ante la pandemia de coronavirus"

Asia

Federation of Asian Pharmaceutical Associations:

Australia

Australian Commission on Safety and Quality in Health Care

Medicines management in COVID-19 resources

McKell Institute

The Missing Link: How Pharmacies Can Accelerate Australia’s Vaccine Roll-Out

Pharmaceutical Society of Australia:

Pharmacy Guild of Australia: Information and guidance for community pharmacies in Australia

University of Melbourne: The lessons from past pandemics

Austria

Austrian Pharmacists Chamber:  "Measures taken in the wake of the corona crisis concerning community pharmacies in Austria"

Belgium

Association Pharmaceutique Belge (APB): COVID-19 information website

Brazil

Brazilian Federal Council of Pharmacy:

Canada

Canadian Pharmacists Association:

China

Centralised PIVAS expert group of National Pharmaceutical Affairs Management Professional Quality Control Center: "Consensus on Emergency-Mode Pharmacy Intravenous Admixture Service (PIVAS) in the Context of Public Health Emergencies

Centre for Health Protection, Department of Health, Government of Hong Kong SAR: Severe respiratory disease associated with a novel infectious agent (information and resource centre) (Simplified Chinese)

Chinese Pharmaceutical Association:
  • Novel Coronavirus (COVID-19) outbreak prevention and control: Guidance and management strategies for pharmacists and the pharmacy workforce  Chinese    English
  • Expert consensus to guide the prevention and control of the COVID-19 epidemic for retail pharmacy staff Chinese    English
  • Hospital pharmacy professional committee expert consensus on rational drug use in clinical practice for COVID-19  Chinese    English

Zhejiang Hospital Pharmacy Administration & Quality Control Centre: Suggestions about diagnosis and treatment of novel coronavirus pneumonia in pharmacy work

Zhongnan Hospital of Wuhan University Protection strategies of pharmaceutical posts, pharmacists and logistics personnel in the context of novel coronavirus infection

China Taiwan

Taiwan Society of Health-System Pharmacists: Community Pharmacists in Taiwan at the Frontline Against the Novel Coronavirus Pandemic: Gatekeepers for the Rationing of Personal Protective Equipment"

Commonwealth of nations

Commonwealth Pharmacists Association: How to Manufacture Alcohol Hand Rub: Training video launched to support COVID-19 response

Costa Rica

College of Pharmacists of Costa Rica:

Ecuador

"COVID-19 guidance"

Egypt

"COVID-19: 10 step guidance for pharmacy teams"

Europe

European Association of Hospital Pharmacists: COVID-19 Resource Centre

European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control

Pharmaceutical Group of European Union:

France

"Advice for pharmacies"

French Chamber of Pharmacists:

COVID-19 Information for pharmacists

Ministère des Solidaritès et de la Santé: COVID-19 hub

The International Conference of French-speaking Chambers of Pharmacists (CIOPF):

COVID-19 News, resources and information

Germany

Federal Union of German Associations of Pharmacists:

Greece

Ministry of Health Greece: Instructions for protection against respiratory infection from the new coronavirus

Panhellenic Association of Pharmacists (PEPharm): COVID-19

National Pubic Health Organization: New Covid-19 corona - Instructions

International

International Federation of Pharmaceutical Manufacturers & Associations: Applying lessons learned from COVID-19 to create a healthier, safer, more equitable world

Italy 

Federfarma

Japan

The Pharmaceutical Society of Japan: COVID-19 News

Lebanon

Ministry of public healthGuide to avoid coronavirus infection

Malaysia

"COVID-19 pandemic guidance document for Malaysian pharmacists"  English    Malaysian

Nepal

Nepal Pharmaceutical Association: COVID-19 Guideline for pharmacists and pharmacy assistant

Netherlands

The Royal Dutch Pharmacists Association 

  • The National Institute for Public Health and the Environment (RIVM) has published a report about care during the COVID-19 pandemic (pp54-8 talk about pharmaceutical care). An abstract in English is available here.
  • COVID-19 hub in The Netherlands
  • Pharmacists can publish their best practices and efforts about pharmaceutical care in the period of COVID-19 here.
  • Thank you message to pharmacists.

The Dutch Minister of Health recognizes the role of Dutch pharmacists in a letter addressed to The Royal Dutch Pharmacists Association and in a message addressed to Dutch Parliament.

Pakistan

COVID-19. Ten steps guidance for pharmacy teams. English  Arabic.

Philippines

Philippine Pharmacists Association: Community Pharmacy Guide COVID-19 Preparedness

Portugal

Actions against COVID (Portuguese Pharmaceutical SocietyPortuguese Pharmaceutical Society and National Association of Pharmacies of Portugal)

Portuguese Pharmaceutical Society:

National Association of Pharmacies of Portugal:

Pharmacy's response to COVID-19: A virtual exhibition. How to participate? Watch this interview to Joao Neto, curator, Pharmacy Museum of the National Association of Pharmacies of Portugal.

"Boas Practicas e estrategias a adopter pelas farmacias"

ANF Thank you pharmacies video

APFH - Associação Portuguesa de Farmacêuticos Hospitalares

Hospital pharmacy recommendations

Serbia

Pharmaceutical Chamber of Serbia

"КОРОНА ВИРУС SARS-CoV-2 Информације и привремене смернице за фармацеуте и апотекарску делатност"

Slovenia

University of Ljubljana

"COVID-19 aktualne informacije"

Spain

General Pharmaceutical Council of Spain:

Spanish Society of Family and Community Pharmacy (SEFAC)

Turkey

COVID-19 (SARS-CoV-2 ENFEKSİYONU) REHBERİ

Turkish Pharmacists Association

"COVID-19 Hub"

UAE

Ministry of health and preventionGuide for coronavirus 

Uganda

Proposal on sustainable hand hygiene in low- and middle-income countries

United Kingdom

Academy of Pharmaceutical Sciences (APS): Coronavirus info

British Medical Journal – Best PracticeOverview of novel coronavirus (SARS-CoV-2)

Medicines & Healthcare products Regulatory Agency: Coronavirus (COVID-19): guidance and support

PhRMA (biopharmaceutical research companies): Member Company Efforts to Combat Coronavirus Outbreak

Royal Pharmaceutical Society: 

The Lancet: SARS-CoV-2 Resource Centre (open access)

The Pharmaceutical Journal: Everything you should know about the coronavirus outbreak

UK Government: How tests and testing kits for coronavirus (COVID-19) work

United Nations

UNESCO: 

WHO: 

 

Uruguay

Association of Chemistry and Pharmacy:

USA

American Pharmacists Association: "COVID-19 Practice Resources

American Society of Health-System Pharmacists:

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention: 2019 novel coronavirus

Johns Hopkins University –Center for Systems Science and EngineeringSARS-CoV-2 Global Cases update

National Academy of Medicine: Coronavirus resources

National Institutes of Health: COVID-19 Treatment Guidelines

University of Colorado, Skaggs School of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences & Colorado Pharmacists Society: "COVID-19: Implications for Pharmacists" (PowerPoint slides)

United States Pharmacopeia:

Wiley Scientific Publisher: Coronavirus research centre

Questions from FIP members and member organisations

End of life care

 

Articles & Other

 

 

FIP COVID-19 Timeline

 COVID19 Timeline 16 July

 

In memoriam

Pharmacy teams are risking their lives to continue to provide health care to their communities and support our health systems during this coronavirus pandemic. Inevitably, deaths of colleagues from COVID-19 are being reported to FIP from around the world.  With this list, we would like to make sure that none of these colleagues are forgotten.

Adriana Alia Gómez (Spain)
Camillo Alinovi (Italy)
Oscar J. Álvarez Rodríguez (Spain)
Teresa Baca Cruces (Spain)
Jayesh Bhanubhai Patel (UK)
Reanna Casalini (Italy)
Victor Chanda (Zambia)
Florentina Cimiano Valera (Spain)
Jaime Clavijo (Spain)
Raffaele Corbellini (Italy) 
María del Carmen Cuadrado (Spain)
Sean D.Boynes (USA)
Paolo D’Ambrogi (Italy)
Francesco De Donno (Italy) 
Santiago Díez García (Spain)
İsmail Durmuş (Turkey)
Plumarz K Ferzandi (India) 
Patrizio Forti Paolini (Italy) 
Amparo Gadea (Spain)
Pedro García  (Spain)
İhsan Giray (Turkey)
Julio Gutiérrez Montalvo (Spain)
Himmet Taştan Kardaşlar (Turkey) 
Fernando Marcantonio (Italy) 
Fermín Martínez (USA)
Abdelilah Mesfioui (Morocco)
José Tomás Mijimolle (Spain) 
Ekrem Özdemir (Pharmacy technician, Turkey)
Shashikant Parekh (UK)
Mehool Patel (UK)
Hilario Pellín (Spain)
Antonio Perani (Italy)
Nieves Quiralte Abello (Spain)
Birender Rawat (UK)
Michel Renson (Belgium)
Lorenzo Repetto (Italy)
Daniela Rigoni (Italy)
Manuel Ruiz (Spain)
Francisco Javier Santamaría Blanco (Spain)
Yves-Emmanuel Segui (USA)
Pooja Sharma (Hospital pharmacist, UK) 
Mandy Siddorn (Community pharmacy technician, UK) 
Süreyya Sıpkınkurt (Turkey) 
Yingjie Song (China) 
Navin Shantilal Talati (UK)
Antonio Tilli (Italy)
Taki Turkyilmaz (Turkey)
Merih Yalçınöz (Turkey) 
Yücel Yildirim (Turkey)
Jermaine Wright (UK) 
Luis (surname withheld) (Spain)
Pharmacist (name withheld) (Spain)
Pharmacist (name withheld) (Spain)
Pharmacist (name withheld) (Spain)
Pharmacist (name withheld) (Spain)

Last update 10 September 2024

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