Dili: The island nation of 1.3 million with a developing health system was inadequately prepared to deal with a pandemic of Coronavirus Disease – 2019 (COVID-19) scale. A year and a half later, since the pandemic engulfed the world, Timor-Leste has not only responded with resolve and resilience but has some lessons to offer.
As of 26 May 2021, Timor-Leste had reported 6,245 cases and 14 deaths. And notably, the country had also administered 73,137 doses of the COVID-19 vaccine as of 27 May 2021. While currently there is a surge of COVID-19 cases, there is also a more robust response – more testing, faster testing, expansion of clinical care provisions and better-trained health workforce, to name a few areas.
From no laboratory capacity in early 2020 to be able to run more than a thousand assay tests a day, from no isolation and quarantine facility to be able to quarantine thousands; the way Timor-Leste rose to the occasion is not only a story of South-East Asia’s youngest county’s resolve but also partnerships and solidarity.
With generous funding assistance from the European Union (EU), WHO has been able to support the Ministry of Health (MoH) across every area of COVID-19 response – from surveillance to laboratory to capacity building of health workers to risk communication to clinical case management of COVID-19 cases. In addition to providing COVID-19 testing kits and other necessary consumables like reagents, the aid from the EU has enabled WHO to bring in two clinical care experts for COVID-19 case management to support the MoH. The EU funding is also being used to increase the case management capacity at isolation centres at the five Referral Hospitals in Timor-Leste to strengthen response capacity across the country.
“EU’s funding support has been immensely helpful for us to extend all possible support to the MoH in responding to the pandemic. A global crisis of this scale cannot be overcome without global solidarity and support. I truly appreciate the EU’s commitment to helping smaller and developing countries,” said Dr Arvind Mathur, WHO Representative to Timor-Leste.
"As a medical scientist and a health worker, it was both heartbreaking and challenging for us when we'd to send samples to Australia to test for COVID-19 at the start," said Sra Endang da Silva, Executive Director, National Health Laboratory. "The challenge now has taken a different shape – we are now running thousand plus RTPCR tests a day – it is fulfilling as a technical expert and a Timorese – to be able to do the tests indigenously. Thanks to the political leadership and over all support of the development partners for enabling an environment that allows us to do our best," she added.
"The very raison d'etre of the EU is internationalism, solidarity and cooperation. So whether it is supporting and funding global initiatives to strengthen the pandemic response or collaborating at the country level with agencies and partner on the field, it is not only our collective responsibility but an effort to build a fairer and equitable world," said H.E Andrew Jacobs, EU Ambassador to Timor-Leste.