Działania władz publicznych w zakresie zwalczania pandemii COVID-19 w wybranych krajach europejskich

Activities of public health authorities to combat COVID-19 in selected European countries The coronavirus pandemic has contributed to great changes in the functioning of modern societies, not just in the medical dimension. The percep­tion of the health care system and its employees has also changed. The aim of the article is to analyze the approach of public authorities to combat the spread of SARS-CoV-2 virus in the following countries: Belgium, Bulgaria, Denmark, France, Germany, the Netherlands, Spain, the United Kingdom and Poland. The research material was information available on the website of the European Observatory of Health Systems and Policies (EOHSP) in a special section dedicated to issues related to the prevention of coronavirus pandemic (https://www.covid19healthsystem.org/mainpage.aspx). The obtained results indicate that the crisis situation caused by the COVID-19 pandemic forced all countries to undertake diversified, non-standard efforts, i.e. the use of their own pharmaceutical sector for the production of disinfectants or acceleration of obtaining licenses by medical practition­ers. In terms of financing one of activity was generation of additional funds for healthcare systems that were financially heavily burdened in the pandemic era.