*Errors and omissions excepted (E&OE)
Good morning and good afternoon colleagues and distinguished guests (and good evening to Professor Jeffrey Sachs!). Thank you very much for joining this Forum today.
We are very pleased to be organising this Forum jointly with the Lancet COVID-19 Commission – and thank you Jeff for your support.
Compared to other parts of the world, as Angela and Professor Sachs mentioned, our region has been comparatively fortunate. To date we’ve recorded just 1% of confirmed cases and 1% of confirmed deaths. Most countries have avoided the so-called “red line”, or the point where critical care needs surpass health care capacity, large numbers of health care workers are infected, service quality declines, and deaths rapidly increase. We call this the "red line."
Of course, 2020 has still been a very difficult year – in particular, for health care workers, and for those who have lost loved ones and livelihoods. It has been a very difficult year. My thoughts are with the families of these people every day. And my thoughts are with the healthcare workers who have been working so hard over the past year.
And so we need to remain vigilant, in order to keep case numbers down, and health systems operating, and as far as possible, we want to make sure that transmission of the virus is in check.
Today’s Forum is an opportunity to reflect on some of the lessons that can be learned from our experiences. There is no single or simple reason as to why our Region has fared relatively well.
Clearly, long term investment is critical. Countries in the Region have spent more than a decade preparing for events with pandemic potential, by strengthening their health systems in anticipation of an event like the COVID-19 pandemic. I myself lost colleagues during SARS in 2003. And I myself committed. And I know there are many people who were engaged in SARS that also committed in a similar way.
Under the Asia Pacific Strategy for Emerging Diseases and Public Health Emergencies, or APSED, now in its third iteration, countries developed their response plans – and, crucially, the capacities and systems to implement them. Under this shared strategy, systems were set up – such as for contact tracing – which have proven to be critical in the COVID19 response.
We also saw in places such as the Republic of Korea, the importance of quickly scaling up testing – and linking this to the public health response. I understand that they fully utilized experience from the MERS outbreak in 2015. Countries that have successfully controlled COVID19 had a very strong public health plan to manage positive cases.
Most countries were able to scale up the right mix of public health interventions at the right time, to avoid the so-called “red line” as I have already mentioned – where health systems are totally overwhelmed.
China showed us early on that this virus could be suppressed, with the right set of public health interventions. Australia and New Zealand’s experience has reinforced this. While countries were prepared for the worst-case scenario, widespread community transmission was not inevitable.
From Japan, we learned the benefits of using a cluster-based approach. And of course, Japan also taught us about the renowned three C’s. I understand that even small kids in Japan know these three Cs: avoiding closed spaces, crowded places and close-contact settings.
There are many other important factors: good systems for multi-source surveillance have been crucial – to enable countries to monitor trends, assess risks, and adapt response strategies accordingly.
Communication from trusted sources including governments, health care workers and scientists has been so important – for establishing and sustaining social norms around protective behaviours, and building community support for public health measures. We have been observing very effective communication in many countries including Viet Nam, Singapore and New Zealand. I have been impressed so many times with those Member States' communication. I have also observed in many countries a strong community commitment to protecting the most vulnerable.
I am also very proud of the spirit of solidarity that has characterized interactions between countries of our Region this year – from technical exchanges on issues such as laboratory testing and clinical management, and to working together in joint incident management teams, to commitments to support equitable access to COVID-19 vaccines. Countries in the Region really have come together, borne out of a recognition that no country is safe until every country is safe.
Of course, none of the things I have described are unique to the Western Pacific Region. But they have come together this year in a unique way – sparing us from the scale of devastation from this virus that we are currently seeing in other parts of the world.
But this is obviously no time to be complacent, as Angela also emphasized: the pandemic is far from over, and how it evolves in the next phase depends on our individual and collective actions.
So I am very much looking forward to hearing from all our distinguished country representatives during today’s Forum. Thank you again for being here.
Thank you very much.