This may potentially also put their families and communities at risk.Ī recent commentary about the COVID-19 response in Iran exemplifies the concerning general response capacity of low and middle income countries (LMIC), and the barriers faced concerning testing, provision of protective personal equipment (PPE) for health staff, and advanced medical services. People with poor access to healthcare who experience COVID-19 related symptoms may delay or even forgo being tested, and may consequently turn to medical care only in advanced stages, resulting in poorer outcomes. Minorities and migrant populations also face language and cultural barriers limiting their access to accurate information on prevention and mitigation, compelling them to rely on social media to obtain advice that may be erroneous. People holding essential roles, usually from lower-paying jobs, such as public transportation operators or grocery store or pharmacy clerks, are more exposed to the public and thus also to being infected. These groups have higher rates of comorbid chronic conditions, putting them at high-risk for infection and for severe consequences of the disease. These vulnerable populations may include older adults, people living in densely populated areas, people with lower socioeconomic status, migrants and minorities. With the continuous rise in the global death toll from COVID-19 there is a growing realization that mortality for the SARS-COV-2 virus is inequitably distributed among vulnerable populations. This compilation is by no-means representative or all inclusive, and we encourage researchers to continue advancing global knowledge on COVID-19 health equity related issues, through rigorous research and generation of a strong evidence base of new empirical studies in this field. To address the challenges to health equity and describe some of the approaches taken by governments and local organizations, we have compiled 13 country case studies from various regions around the world: China, Brazil, Thailand, Sub Saharan Africa, Nicaragua, Armenia, India, Guatemala, United States of America (USA), Israel, Australia, Colombia, and Belgium. Moreover, the collateral effects of the pandemic due to the global economic downturn, and social isolation and movement restriction measures, are unequally affecting those in the lowest power strata of societies. The COVID-19 is disproportionally affecting the poor, minorities and a broad range of vulnerable populations, due to its inequitable spread in areas of dense population and limited mitigation capacity due to high prevalence of chronic conditions or poor access to high quality public health and medical care. The Creative Commons Public Domain Dedication waiver ( ) applies to the data made available in this article, unless otherwise stated in a credit line to the data. If material is not included in the article's Creative Commons licence and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article's Creative Commons licence, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. Open AccessThis article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons licence, and indicate if changes were made.
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