The COVID-19 pandemic has led to a dramatic loss of human life worldwide and presents an unprecedented challenge to public health and the world of work.

The pandemic is raising pressure over debilitated health systems leading governments to take action in order to flat the contagion curve and contain the impact over ICU. To address the growth of infected, governments are relying on restrictive measures reducing the mobility in large portions of their territory and putting their population under strict quarantine.

These restrictive and drastic measures direct impact on the economy, leaving millions of enterprises face an existential threat. Nearly half of the world’s 3.3 billion global workforce are at risk of losing their livelihoods, urging governments to constantly balance their measures between public health and the economy.

In this talk, we discuss with Dr. Ricardo Mexia (public health M.D. and epidemiologist) and Dr. Pedro Caetano (Director of Global Regulatory Affairs at IPSEN), how Portugal reacted to the first wave of infection and what would be the best approach to balance the need to flat the contagion curve and the needed measures to sustain economic survival.