The  paper  presents  the  strategies  of  Middle  East  and  North  African  countries  in  coping  with  COVID-19  pandemic  in  the  first  months  of  spring/summer  2020.  It  offers  a  categorisation  of  strategies basing on the available assets the countries have and political situation. According to this categorisation  there  are  countries  in  which  the  pandemic  is  one  more  burden  to  bear  that  makes  the  current  political  or  economic  situation  even  worse  (countries  torn  by  war  or  serious  internal  social conflicts); countries that cope with the pandemic as good as it gets – taking their institutional capacities  (Egypt  and  Morocco);  the  too  rich  to  fail  category  of  GCC  countries,  and  two  possible  success stories (by that time Jordan and Tunisia).