We should be proud of our pandemic response in the Pacific – let’s build upon it to save lives now and in future

The COVID-19 pandemic has been a difficult time for everyone. Too many people have tragically lost loved ones, too many people have struggled to make ends meet, and too many children have missed weeks or months of schooling. However, if there is one positive to take away from the shared experience of the pandemic in the Pacific, it is the fact that everyone – communities, governments, civil society and regional and international organizations – came together to protect health and protect each other from the worst effects of this crisis.

We should all be proud of how we have supported each other during this time.

Our four organizations are thankful to have been able to play our part. Under a partnership established at the start of 2020, the European Union (EU), the World Health Organization (WHO), the Pacific Community (SPC) and the World Food Programme (WFP) have delivered more than 1.2 million items of equipment, medicines and supplies and overcome travel difficulties and poor internet connections to train more than 2,500 health workers on topics such as critical care nursing, laboratory testing, clinical services, surveillance and epidemiology. In collaboration with other partners such as our sister United Nations agencies and the governments of Australia, New Zealand, Japan and the United States, we operated more than 41 humanitarian flights crossing closed borders to bring life-saving relief across the Pacific and delivered more than 1.3 million doses of COVID-19 vaccines via the COVAX facility.

However, we remain part of a bigger effort led primarily by Pacific governments and Pacific people. While the response has had its own unique aspects in every different Pacific Island country and territory, the Pacific has generally heeded WHO’s warnings and advice and acted quicky to prepare and respond based on the latest science and lessons from around the world. Across the Pacific, people have been wearing masks, cleaning our hands, getting vaccinated and staying home when needed. We have quickly adapted to the new normal and shifted to online means of staying connected. Health workers in particular showed their dedication and determination, remaining committed to sharpening their skills virtually, even while providing life-saving treatment to overwhelming numbers of COVID-19 patients.

Thanks to these joint actions, there are thousands of people alive today who would not otherwise have survived.

Still, before we all relax and move on, we must remember that COVID-19 is likely to be with us for a long time yet. We can’t drop our guard. We need to get our boosters, for example, and to keep testing people and sending samples for genetic sequencing so we can keep track of the virus as it spreads and mutates.

And we can be sure that this won’t be the last health emergency or even the last pandemic that we face. So, we need to be ready.

Pacific Island countries and territories have long been prone to emergencies. We entered the pandemic on the back of a multi-country measles outbreak, for example, and in the wake of Tropical Cyclone Harold which hammered Fiji, Solomon Islands, Tonga, and Vanuatu. Later, Tropical Cyclone Yasa devastated Fiji. And the recent Hunga Tonga-Hunga Ha'apai volcanic eruption and tsunami in Tonga this year also showed us that emergencies don’t give us a break and can sometimes arrive on top of each other.

We can therefore expect to face continued threats in the future and, as the current response to COVID-19 has demonstrated, these emergencies are becoming more complex than ever before. Factors such as climate change, urbanization, increasing travel and connectedness through social media are compounding the impact of crises and complicating emergency response. 

So, we need to act now to ensure that we keep some of the things that worked well over the past few years and maintain the collaboration required to ensure that we are ready for any sudden developments in the current pandemic as well as future crises.

Climate change is one of them. Right now, world leaders are gathering in Sharm El-Sheikh, Egypt, for the 2022 United Nations Climate Change Conference, more commonly known as COP27. This period also marks the beginning of the South Pacific cyclone season. We hope that the rest of the world will listen to the voices of the Pacific governments and civil society representatives from the world’s most disaster-prone region during this event.

Because climate and environmental change will definitely lead to an increase in outbreaks and emergencies in future. In the years to come, health impacts will only increase as climate-sensitive diseases like dengue and leptospirosis spread, drinking water becomes scarcer and more likely to be contaminated, people suffer from the health consequences of living and working in higher temperatures, and super storms cause illness and injuries. The impacts of climate change on household food security is also paramount – increasingly affecting people’s abilities to produce, access and consume food and impacting the most vulnerable communities who must fight to sustain their lives and livelihoods.

So, let’s take a minute to think about what we need to maintain and strengthen from the current pandemic response – whether that is the increased capacity for laboratory testing that is now available across the Pacific, the need to rely on the best available science to counter disinformation, or the partnerships and sense of solidarity that were established. Let’s work together to determine what we need to retain and sustain, and where there are areas for further improvement. And truly make sure we leave no one behind.

We will face further and more complex emergencies in the Pacific in future. However, the EU, WHO, SPC and WFP are committed to continuing to support you – the countries and communities of the Pacific – as we all work together to prepare, and to respond.