Global health. The current scenario and future perspectives

254 intensive-care units (ICUs), from a large number of people falling ill simultaneously has stressed healthcare systems beyond limits that may have seemed unimaginable before. This has also required an unprecedented mobilization of healthcare systems (WHO, 2020c). The threat of Covid-19 depends on the number of new cases that occur simultaneously at any given time and the capacity of the country’s healthcare system to respond to the growing demand for healthcare (WHO, 2020c). Therefore, the ability of the health system to effectively respond to this demand depends on available resources, particularly hospital beds, intensive care unit (ICU) capacity and specialized human resources (WHO, 2020a), as well as a strong and responsive primary level of care that works in coordination with the populations it serves (Arteaga & Fuentes García, 2020). Countries and their health systems have had different capacities to respond to Covid-19, which has brought forth the concept of resilience. While resilience has been central in the field of risk reduction, its application to health systems is relatively new (Haldane et al., 2021). In this case, resilience has been defined as the ability of a health system to prepare for, manage (absorb, adapt and transform) and learn from shocks, i.e. sudden and extreme disruptions such as epidemics, natural disasters and financial crises (Sagan et al., 2020). More recently, Haldane et al., building upon this conceptual framework by focusing on institutional capacities and healthcare agents’ preparedness for recovery while maintaining essential functions and addressing acute needs within their communities, expanded the concept of resilience to include dimensions such as governance and financing, personnel, sanitary products and medical technologies, public health functions, health service delivery and community participation in preventing and mitigating the spread of Covid- 19 (Haldan et al., 2021). Thus, the countries whose health systems have been more resilient are those that activate comprehensive responses by considering health and well-being as intertwined elements with economic and social considerations. They adapt capacities within and outside of the health system to meet the needs of communities, maintain functions and resources within and beyond the health system. This aims to continue providing healthcare related to the pandemic as well as routine and acute care unrelated to the pandemic and to reduce vulnerability to catastrophic losses in terms of health and well- being and financial aspects for individuals and households (Haldaneet al., 2021). Undoubtedly, the sanitary, social, economic and political crisis generated by Covid-19 is of great magnitude and has made the enormous