Dear Editor,

Outbreaks of epidemics account for a great number of deaths. Communicable or infectious diseases are also major causes of mortality in the aftermath of natural or man-made disasters.

Effective control of an outbreak calls for a rapid response. Available resources, such as essential medical supplies and well-trained personnel, need to be deployed rapidly and to be managed in conjunction with available information and financial resources in order to contain the spread before it reaches uncontrollable or disastrous proportions. Therefore, the establishment and management of an emergency supply chain during the containment effort are of paramount importance.

The world is now under siege as the global crisis of COVID-19 rapidly spreads through every country across the globe, yet the need for supplies to be moved is more in demand now than ever before. Areas in countries such as Italy, France, and the United States of America, just to name a few, are in dire need of medical supplies that just require simple logistics to get them where there is need to contain the spread of this marauding virus that has captured so many lives. Smaller countries within the Caribbean, such as Jamaica, have exercised good logistics practices, which have to date proven largely effective.

This goes to show the importance of proper planning and preparedness and not only in the building of an economy through monetary means.

This is testament to the importance of logistics in planning activities to better be able to forecast the outcome of a pandemic such as COVID-19 and the means by which the response may be administered.

Keldon Green

keldong6@gmail.com