The project carried out between July and December 2020 collected and analyzed the opinion of community nurses from all over the country on their professional activity (including the activities they have participated in since the declaration of the COVID-19 pandemic in Romania in March 2020), their working conditions, and their needs for training, continuing medical education, and education. The quantitative study, with a response rate of 78%, ended with recommendations addressed to both central authorities - the Ministry of Health, which finances the activity of community health care, and deconcentrated institutions at county level - public health directorates, which methodologically coordinate the activity of community health care, and local authorities - municipalities, as employers of community health nurses.rnThe research report is available here: https://www.unicef.org/romania/media/6016/file/AMC%20Study_v9-18.08.21-web.pdf.

Running from mid-2020 to early 2022, the project proposed a set of communication materials to primary and community health care staff, and other community leaders who could become advocates for COVID-19 vaccination, to communicate with the vaccine-reluctant population to combat misinformation and fake news and promote vaccination. The communication guide has been structured into separate sections. The first part identifies the most common myths, fake news and misinformation and provides the promoter with simple statements to combat them, based on scientific information and recommendations from prestigious organisations (WHO, CDC Atlanta, ECDC, EMA, UNICEF, etc). The second section brings as an innovation a step-by-step communication guide based on the principles and techniques used in motivational interviewing. The third and final part of the Guide provides up-to-date data and scientific information, regularly updated from credible sources, on the SARS CoV2 virus, the pandemic, COVID-19 vaccines and vaccination have been described in an accessible language, with the intention to provide vaccination promoters with evidence and knowledge on which to base their communication with the population hesitant to vaccinate against COVID-19. The guide was accompanied by one-page summary communication materials for specific population groups at risk of severe disease or death. rn(https://www.unicef.org/romania/media/5971/file/Ghid_Comunicare_Vaccinare_August_2021.pdf; https://www.unicef.org/romania/ro/documents/ghid-de-comunicare-%C3%AEn-comunitate-privind-vaccinarea-%C3%AEmpotriva-covid-19).

During 2020, with the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, we contributed with collaborators from the National School of Public Health, Health Management and Training to the European Observatory on Health Systems and Policies' "Health Systems Response Monitor to the COVID-19 Pandemic" (HSRM: https://eurohealthobservatory.who.int/monitors/hsrm/hsrm-countries/hsrm/romania). Information on how health systems in the European region have responded to the global pandemic-induced crisis (2020-2021) supports building resilient and better prepared health systems, and allows for comparative analysis between countries.