Jordan and COVID-19: Effective Response at a High Cost

According to health statistics, Jordan has largely avoided the COVID-19 pandemic. As of early June 2020, there have only been 9 deaths in a population of 10 million. Jordan implemented a strict closure before the outbreak gained momentum. The country’s swift lockdown was due to it being well-equipped to coerce the population, while being structurally ill-equipped to deal with a large outbreak. Jordan has a weak health-care system, a struggling economy and densely populated poor urban areas where the virus would have been hard to contain. Jordan is a success story from a public health perspective, but the societal and economic costs have been high.