The literature on risk communication from various topic areas emphasizes the importance of clear, repeated, action-oriented messaging by a trusted leader.

Pandemic-related upstream health promotion approaches aim to reduce the risk of transmission, increase equitable access to testing/vaccination, and mitigate secondary impacts of the pandemic and its response measures.

This rapid review explores what is known about the Public Health Network (PHN) and the Special Advisory Committee’s (SAC) leadership and performance throughout the COVID-19 pandemic. There is very limited analysis of the role of the PHN and SAC in the COVID-19 pandemic. There is evidence of inter-jurisdictional coordination, reflecting one of the key functions of SAC. Along with coordination, there is also evidence of localized tailoring of messaging to reflect current information and the emerging status of the pandemic.

Despite limited available evidence, interventions that appear to get school-aged children caught up with routine vaccinations in the context of COVID-19 include notifying parents that their child is behind, providing vaccine education and scheduling prompts, and offering convenient school- or community-based clinics.

Current national COVID-19 testing policies in healthcare range from universal to context-dependent recommendations based on suspected transmission, vaccination status, presence of symptoms, and/or risk of exposure. National guidance is likely adapted locally with consideration of the trade-off between mitigating spread with available resources, outbreak status, and community rates of COVID-19.

Most jurisdictions recommended or required a 14-day quarantine for people exposed or at risk of exposure to COVID-19.

Very few jurisdictions have described policy approaches related to previously positive cases who are considered recovered and subsequently test positive.