As the world continues to recover from the devastating impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, we must remain prepared and alert for the next one. In Armenia, the national pandemic preparedness plan has been developed following the March 2025 workshop on Preparedness and Resilience for Emerging Threats (PRET). In light of lessons learned from the COVID-19 pandemic and the Mosaic workshop also being held in December 2025, there is a need to test this national pandemic plan and update it to address the gaps demonstrated in the simulation exercise. This will assess its suitability in the current context and identify gaps and opportunities for improvement in future plan updates.
The objectives of the tabletop simulation exercise are to:
- strengthen respiratory pathogen pandemic planning;
- review the draft national pandemic plan, with a focus on respiratory pathogens; and
- test specific components of the plan, including multisectoral coordination, collaborative surveillance, clinical care, access to countermeasures and community protection.
The expected output is a report that includes the main recommendations for future updates required for the pandemic plan, recommendations for capacities or systems that need to be strengthened for respiratory pathogen pandemic preparedness, and a description of future activities, such as meetings or exercises, to ensure the iterative review and update of plans and systems and to sustain stakeholder engagement.
The expected outcomes are a validated national pandemic plan that covers respiratory pathogen pandemic preparedness, and stakeholders coordinated and informed on respiratory pathogen pandemic planning, including preparedness and response actions.