COVID-19: maintaining essential rehabilitation services across the carecontinuum
InTroduCTIon
COVID-19 is overwhelming healthcare services and healthcare workers globally. The response, appropriately, is on the ability to care for people who become critically ill, protect their carers and keep people physi-cally distanced. However, this response has shifted what is considered and how to provide essential healthcare services. Rehabilitation services, which optimise physical and cogni-tive functioning to reduce disability, are a core component of high-value care.1 The decisions to shift, transform, delay or discon-tinue rehabilitation care are complex. These decisions have societal implications for today and the future. This commentary describes adjustments to the continuum of rehabilita-tion services across 12 low-income, middle-income and high-income countries in the context of national COVID-19 preparedness responses (table1) and provides recommen-dations for decision makers on the provision and payment of these essential services.