Honourable Ministers,
My dear brother Regional Director Dr Ahmed Al-Mandhari,
Excellencies, colleagues and dear friends,
Thank you for the opportunity to speak to you today.
The COVID-19 pandemic is showing that no country or region is immune.
Almost 140,000 cases and more than 6000 deaths have been reported to WHO from the Eastern Mediterranean so far.
The epidemic in the Islamic Republic of Iran now appears to be waning, but most other countries in the region are seeing increasing numbers of new infections every day.
While we are not yet seeing the explosive outbreaks that have been a feature of the pandemic in Europe and North America, cases are doubling every 7 to 8 days.
We’re especially concerned about the potential impact of the virus in countries that have suffered from years of conflict and fragility.
The Eastern Mediterranean still has an opportunity to slow the transmission of COVID-19 – but the window is rapidly closing.
Slowing the spread is critical in order to give you time to mount a comprehensive response.
The proven public health measures of early detection, testing, isolation and treatment of cases, and tracing and quarantining of contacts should form the central pillar of the response.
From the experience of other countries, we have learned the value of physical distancing, including stay-at-home orders and suspension of mass gatherings.
This approach can prevent a handful of cases from becoming clusters and prevent clusters from becoming community transmission.
However, in places where people live in overcrowded conditions, and where people must work every day to put food on the table, stay-at-home orders may cause significant unintended harm.
Governments must impose physical distancing restrictions carefully, adapting for each country and community.
All of us need to invest further in the collection, analysis and utilization of epidemiological data. Aggregated data should be shared with WHO, to inform country-specific advice and regional analysis and response.
Early isolation of ALL cases is perhaps the most important public health measure in controlling the spread of the disease.
Confirmed patients who have mild disease or do not require hospitalization should be admitted to temporary isolation facilities managed properly with IPC measures in place.
Home isolation should be considered as a last resort, as experience demonstrates that adherence is weak and transmission to other household members is common.
As you know, protecting health workers is one of the most important responsibilities of the health system.
It’s vital to protect health workers, especially those who work in conflict-affected areas. To do that, we must ensure health workers have the tools they need to do their jobs safely and effectively.
We know that many countries are facing acute shortages of personal protective equipment, and WHO is working to increase supply.
So far we have shipped diagnostic tests and almost 1 million items of personal protective equipment to 15 countries in the region, and more is on the way.
Last week we launched the United Nations Supply Chain System, to ramp up the distribution of essential supplies to countries that need it most.
We have been impressed by the progress being made across many EMRO countries. The active outreach to almost 70 million people in Iran through the national campaign; the rapid scaling up of testing in UAE; the commitment to establishing temporary isolation units in Pakistan; the use of polio assets in Afghanistan and in Somalia.
In spite of this clear progress, I am of course asking you to do more.
As always, WHO is here to assist both at headquarters and regional levels and of course at the country level.
WHO has produced multiple technical guidance documents on all aspects of the COVID-19 response and our on-line and remote trainings have been accessed by more than 2 million health workers. And we will expand it to train millions more.
We are coordinating a vast range of research endeavours, including the Solidarity Trial, which is investigating different therapeutic options for the treatment of COVID-19.
And we are helping to consolidate lessons learned to adjust and fine-tune our collective response to the pandemic. The recently released COVID-19 preparedness and response strategy incorporates the most recent learning from country experiences from across the globe.
I would like to leave you with three requests.
First, the response to COVID demands a whole-of-government approach. As Ministers of health, you play a vital, central role, but you cannot do it alone so continuing with the whole of government approach will be very important to beating this virus.
Second, we call on countries to implement proven public health measures aggressively: detect, test, isolate and care for every case, and trace and quarantine every contact.
And third, we urge you to pay careful attention to ensuring that essential public health services continue safely and effectively.
WHO remains committed to standing with all of you in solidarity to fight the virus and save lives.
Finally, I would like to wish you Ramadan kareem.
Shukran jazeelan my brothers and sisters.
Thank you for this opportunity. I am glad to see you. I hope this is over soon and we will be under the same roof soon together to discuss.
Thank you so much.