Testing for COVID-19 in Latvia: Analysis of Public–Private Partnerships

Private–public partnership is a collaboration between two major sectors of a municipalities economy. It is a so called “win-win” partnership, where both parties can benefit in achieving their planned goals while working jointly. In December 2019, in China, the first reported cases of COVID-19 were detected. The virus spread quickly throughout China and reached Latvia in March 2020. In this study we analyse the role of private–public partnerships in organising effective COVID-19 testing of the population in Latvia. By 1 June 2020, Latvia had the 3^rd lowest incidence of COVID-19-caused deaths per 100,000 inhabitants. This study included a systematic review, data acquisition, analysis of the findings, and conclusions were drawn and discussed. During the 1^st wave of the pandemic, the private sector collected and conducted more than 95% of the COVID-19 testing in Latvia. The study showed that there could be many contributing factors to success of Latvia during the 1^st wave of the pandemic, one of which was that Latvia seemed to rely more on the private sector to organise the testing, which seemed to pay off at first.