sciencedirect.com (05.05.2020) One of the most effective ways that the Korean government rapidly dispersed these daily updates is emergency SMS messages. All citizens receive daily alert messages through their mobile phones from their local authorities. The alert message arrives with a 40–60 db alarm sound, and contains information from KCDC about newly confirmed patients and their recent trajectories if available.

oecd.org (16.04.2020) Provision of a subsidy to individuals who need to be isolated (both self-isolation and hospitalisation) to support their living costs and penalises those who are suspected to be infected if they refuse to receive diagnostic test or subsequent treatment or go through self-isolation.

oecd.org and mhis.or.kr (02.02.2020) Korea provides tests and subsequent treatment free of charge to patients and the cost is covered by central and local governments and the health insurance public corporation (the National Health Insurance covers 80% and the central government the remaining 20%).

pension.gov.sa (03.09.2020) The Public Pension Agency has implemented training programs for its employees during remote working so as to better cater their customers during the confinement period.

pension.gov.sa (03.09.2020) Entension of entitlements period of 3 months for beneficiaries who were to suspend their entitlements.

Public Pension Agency (28.04.2020) The call center is fully prepared and staffed (remotely) throughout the month of Ramadan to receive all incoming calls, and to deal with them as determined by the nature of the required service throughout the week from Sunday to Thursday from ten in the morning until four in the evening, and from nine in the evening until one in the morning, and on Friday from one in the evening until five in the evening and from nine in the evening until one in the morning.

Help Age Asia (2020) As part of an Asia-Pacific regional initiative, HelpAge International and partner organisations are producing bimonthly briefs to summarise trends in the situation of older people and responses to their situation in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Luego que esta tarde la Cámara de Diputadas y Diputados aprobara el proyecto de reforma constitucional que permite retirar el 10% de los fondos de pensiones de las cuentas de capitalización individual obligatoria, la Superintendencia de Pensiones (SP) emitió dos oficios con instrucciones con el procedimiento, los plazos y los resguardos que las administradoras de fondos de pensiones (AFP) deberán adoptar para garantizar la correcta aplicación de la nueva ley. Los regulados tienen hasta el próximo martes 28 de julio para entregar sus comentarios.

Reuters (14.09.2020) A collective failure by political leaders to heed warnings and prepare for an infectious disease pandemic has transformed “a world at risk” to a “world in disorder”, according to a report on international epidemic preparedness.

The government website (04.07.2020) The cabinet and social partners have reached final agreement on the details of the pension agreement. The new system will be more transparent. Workers and retirees gain a clearer insight into the accumulated assets. It also provides a realistic expectation and offers more prospects for a high-purchasing pension. The pension entitlements from the current system will be abandoned, thus eliminating the need for the use of actuarial interest and funding ratios. As a result, pensions and benefits can move faster with the state of the e

IPE (15.07.2020) Despite heavy opposition resistance against “breaking down the world’s best pensions system”, the Dutch parliament agreed yesterday to the switch to a new defined contribution (DC) contract which includes a lifecycle system and personal pension pots. However, many questions on implementation remain.

capital.fr (07.09.2020) Le coût des tests généralisés du COVID 19 est très important et la Sécurité sociale est directement impactée.

(May 2020)  The readiness of PPA enabled it to continue providing services electronically immediately after suspending the attendance in wokplaces. Thus, PPA managed to adopt the method of working remotely for all employees (+700 employees) participate in this new method of work, by taking an integrated set of effective actions and measures, adopted from the Saudi Vision 2030 and PPA Strategy 2022.

Finnish Centre for Pensions (02.04.2020) The European Commission has published instructions regarding the mobility of workers in EU during the exceptional circumstances caused by the corona epidemic. The Commission states that the regulations on the coordination of social security systems continue to be valid. The temporary exceptional circumstances do not change the social security status of mobile workers. The instructions by the Commission are indicative and they do not, in individual cases, bind the authorities in the Member States.

Federal Department of Economics, Education and Research (26.08.2020) Bern, - Additional hours that are built up outside of short-time working phases should not have to be temporarily deducted from lost work. This was decided by the Federal Council on August 26, 2020. In addition, income from interim employment is still not counted towards short-time work compensation. This rule therefore applies until the end of the year.

UNAIDS (26.08.2020) UNAIDS is calling on governments to strengthen HIV-sensitive social protection responses to the COVID-19 pandemic.

People living with HIV and tuberculosis (TB) are being significantly impacted by COVID-19. Modelling has estimated the potential catastrophic impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic with increases of up to 10%, 20% and 36% projected deaths for HIV, TB and malaria patients, respectively, over the next five years.

UNDP (August 2020) The COVID-19 Global Gender Response Tracker monitors policy measures enacted by governments worldwide to tackle the COVID-19 crisis, and highlights responses that have integrated a gender lens. It includes national measures that are directly addressing women’s economic and social security, including unpaid care work, the labour market and violence against women. The tracker is coordinated by UNDP with substantive leadership and technical contributions from UN Women.

The Health System Response Monitor (HSRM) has been designed in response to the COVID-19 outbreak to collect and organize up-to-date information on how countries are responding to the crisis. It focuses primarily on the responses of health systems but also captures wider public health initiatives. This is a joint undertaking of the WHO Regional Office for Europe, the European Commission, and the European Observatory on Health Systems and Policies.

P4H Network (05.08.2020) Governments can indeed be very creative in designing schemes for supporting private business: postponing tax collection, reshaping accounting rules, subsiding or tax-exonerating some costs, etc. These schemes and solutions are not developed for the health sector, some could be more favorable to the latter than others.

The Oxford Supertracker is a global directory of over 100 policy trackers and surveys related to COVID-19. This novel collection is designed to assist researchers and policy-makers in keeping track of a rapidly growing number of data sources. You can search and identify relevant information resources, such as datasets, surveys, and systematic collections, across different areas, countries and data types.

IMF (26.08.2020) In response to the COVID-19 pandemic, many countries have created dedicated extrabudgetary funds (EBFs) to mobilize resources and streamline emergency spending measures. A recently published IMF Note discusses the role these funds can play in the current crisis. The note examines the motivation for setting up EBFs and describes a database of more than 40 funds worldwide compiled by the World Health Organization (WHO).