COVID-2019: national effort

The pandemic proved a real trial for countries urging them to make use of all resources available to curb the outbreak.

Let us look what steps were taken by some countries to raise public awaraness on the disease and facilitate processes vital for combating the virus.

Austria

Austrian Standards International (ASI) created a landing page that offers information on relevant European standards and to the respective available ISO and IEC standards. On the web-site you can also find guidance documents, webinars and all updated info on COVID-19-related issues.

Germany

DIN (German Institute for Standardization) is providing free access to a number of German, European and International Standards on medical devices and personal protective equipment. This is primarily intended to help companies boost the production process of medical equipment urgently need in the battle against COVID-19. DIN is offering free advisory services (such as webinars on the subject) to deal with queries relating to the application of these standards.

Italy

On 18 March 2020 UNI (Italian Organization for Standardization) made 14 standards about protective and medical products freely available from its website. The decision was taken to help Regione Lombardia and other local government in the most affected Bergamo area to improve their procurement calls, and to help industries (basically textile and garments) to change their production lines to manufacture individual protective gear.

Russian Federation

Russian manufacturers, state and local authorities, as well as other interested parties, can access a range of current national, interstate and international standards for medical devices and personal protective equipment. The documents are provided in electronic format, protected from modification, replication and without the right to further commercial distribution. Also the government rolled out a simplified procedure of obtaining medical device registation to avoid critical shortage for medical equipment.