Common Global Challenges and Common Stressors of Humanitarian Field Workers Related to the COVID-19 Outbreak

There are a number of challenges in response to the Coronavirus (COVID-19) disease outbreak encountered by many countries in the world. This commentary divides them into those encountered by (health) care delivery systems and those encountered by affected communities and states. There are also a number of stressors experienced by humanitarian field workers during the COVID-19 outbreak.

They are divided into those caused by personal/family issues, isolation and difficulties to travel/ evacuate and those caused by different and sometimes contradictory information on COVID-19 response as well as limited ability to follow the guidelines on self-protection from the virus in the field. The commentary includes information from relevant national and global sources on COVID-19 and information collected by the author during the provision of stress management for humanitarian field staff. The author expresses his personal opinion on a number of challenges.