Good morning and my warm thanks to the Ministry of Health, Republic of Indonesia, for inviting me to address this International Webinar on Strengthening Health System Resilience towards Health Security.
I first want to commend the Government of Indonesia and all Indonesians for their robust response to the COVID-19 pandemic – a pandemic that will soon enter its third year, and which globally has caused more than 5.1 million deaths.
In particular, I congratulate Indonesia for being the first country in the South-East Asia Region to initiate vaccination, and look forward to your ongoing efforts to ensure all high-risk groups are fully vaccinated, including all older people, and people with underlying medical conditions.
Last week, over 3 million new cases of COVID-19 globally were reported to WHO – an increasing trend over the past several weeks. Approximately 50 000 deaths were reported.
Though case incidence and death in our Region continue to decline, we must not let down our guard. The pandemic is far from over.
In addition to accelerated vaccination, countries must continue to implement evidence-informed public health and social measures, which need not be excessively disruptive.
Evidence shows that mask use, physical distancing, hand hygiene and improved ventilation in indoor spaces have a significant impact on viral spread.
Alongside these and other measures, contact tracing, quarantine and isolation must continue.
Such measures are critical to ensuring localized clusters are rapidly identified and addressed, and do not result in larger community transmission.
In our Region and across the world, we have witnessed the devastating impact of new and more transmissible variants – the Delta variant in particular.
To monitor circulating variants, and to identify emerging variants of interest and concern, countries must maintain and strengthen coordinated genomic surveillance – a task for which they can be certain of WHO’s support.
While case numbers in Indonesia and in most countries of the Region are at present low, we must use this opportunity to continue to strengthen health emergency preparedness and health system readiness.
Specifically, we must identify gaps and share lessons learned, with the overall aim of building health system resilience and achieving full compliance with the International Health Regulations (IHR).
I take this opportunity to commend Indonesia for being one of the first countries globally to conduct an intra-action review (IAR) as part of its COVID-19 response.
The IAR has since been followed up on at three-month intervals, ensuring each of its recommendations are implemented.
I appreciate Indonesia’s interest in helping to pilot the Universal Health and Preparedness Review, a Member State-led mechanism by which countries voluntarily agree to a regular and transparent peer-to-peer review of their comprehensive national preparedness capacities.
I commend Indonesia’s active participation in Regional WHO meetings, including our recent meeting on identifying and synthesizing the lessons learned from COVID-19, as well as the bi-regional meeting of the technical working group of the Asia Pacific Strategy for Emerging Diseases and Public Health Emergencies (APSED III) in July.
Both globally and in the Region, Indonesia’s leadership in health and health security is well noted and received.
I give my special thanks to Her Excellency, Ms Grata Endah Werdaningtyas, who has served as co-chair of the Member States Working Group to Strengthen WHO Preparedness for and Response to Health Emergencies.
Countries of the Region have been keen participants of the Working Group, whose activities will inform deliberations at a Special Session of the World Health Assembly (WHA) later this month.
At the special WHA session, Member States will deliberate on a potential new global agreement or international instrument to strengthen health emergency preparedness and response, including possible targeted amendments to strengthen implementation of the IHR.
Need it be said: This is a historic opportunity.
Next year, Indonesia will assume the G20 Presidency, culminating in the G20 Summit in Bali, in October.
The COVID-19 pandemic is expected to be at the top of the agenda, with the prospective theme: “Recover Together, Recover Stronger”.
I am hopeful that the Summit will in all aspects deliver – that it will strengthen global and Regional health security, and that it will accelerate progress towards universal health coverage and the health-related Sustainable Development Goals, in line with a landmark resolution adopted at our Seventy-fourth Regional Committee meeting in September.
I once again thank the Ministry of Health, Republic of Indonesia, reiterate WHO’s ongoing and unmitigated support, and wish you an engaging, insightful and inspiring event.
Thank you.