His Excellency, Associate Professor Dr Phouthone Meuangpak, Vice Minister of Health; Dr Rattanaxay Phetsouvanh, Director-General of the Department of Communicable Disease Control (DCDC); colleagues, partners, ladies and gentleman, sabaidee
I’m very pleased to join all of you this morning at the start of this very important intra-action review of the COVID-19 response here in Lao PDR.
2020 has been a year when everyone in the world has been thinking about health. COVID-19 has impacted everyone’s lives:
- Economically
- Socially
- Educationally
- Physically
- Mentally
Around the world, these impacts have been huge. Many lives have been lost, many more lives and communities have been disrupted, and economies damaged
But it has also been a year when we were again reminded that protecting and promoting health is everybody’s business; that the health of populations and the health of economies are not in competition, they are mutually dependent; and that working together in solidarity is in everyone’s interest.
2020 is definitely a year to remember and reflect on. It is also important, given that COVID-19 is still having big impacts globally, and still poses big risks for Lao PDR, that when we reflect on the COVID response, we think about what worked well, and what needs to work even better. In this way we will be able to contribute to an even stronger effort to tackle COVID and its impacts into the future.
On a personal note many of you know I’ve had an even bigger chance to reflect on COVID responses this year, as for a number of months I was supporting the Lao response remotely, while observing the response of another country, New Zealand, much closer up. This comparison proved to be an interesting one, as there were many shared experiences.
Firstly, both countries have so far managed to keep their COVID case numbers very low, compared to other comparable countries.
Secondly, and this is I think not a coincidence, the national responses shared some similar strengths- clear leadership of the national response, clear proactive public communication, very early public health measures including lockdown, good acceptance by the community of these measures, a focus on the border, and a gradual easing of the measures without seeing a big return of the disease. And both countries are now grappling with the challenge of how to carefully ease restrictions at the border, without causing a significant increase in COVID risk to the population.
There were also of course some differences- for instance although both countries have seen their people start to relax a bit about COVID, because of the effectiveness of the measures so far, it seems to me that the people, and for that matter many health facilities, are even more relaxed here in Lao PDR, and to be frank I think many are now too relaxed, particularly given the risks have not gone away.
We are of course here today to do some of that reflecting in a more structured way, and doing such a review is another common feature of strong emergency responses around the world. There is no country in the world that has had a perfect response to COVID, there are always lessons to be learned, things to be adjusted, things to be strengthened, things to be maintained, and sometimes things to be stopped.
Closer to home, the IAR method has already been used by Thailand and Indonesia to strengthen their respective COVID-19 responses in preparation for opening their countries. The IAR method is used because it is a way to bring all stakeholders together to collectively learn, analyse and come out with a concrete plan on how to strengthen the current response and future responses.
I would like to thank the Ministry of Health and the Department of Communicable Disease Control for your leadership and efforts to organise this review. I would also like to thank all the ministries that are in attendance today for taking the time to join the review. COVID-19 is a priority for all of us.
I am also pleased and thankful to see many of the partners here today, for not only taking the time to join but also crucially for your ongoing support to Lao PDR. Beyond your direct support for the COVID response, your broader support for strengthening health systems in Lao PDR over recent years has also had a real impact on this response, including support that wasn’t explicitly targeted at emergency preparedness.
I wish you all fruitful, active, honest and open discussions over the next 2 days.
And finally, of course this review is not an outcome in itself, it is simply a tool. The key to our success will be what we do with the recommendations that come out of the discussions. It is implementing those recommendations that will make the difference to the health, safety, development and prosperity of the people of Lao PDR.