Honourable Ministers, distinguished delegates, Deputy Director-General of the SPC, Dr Paula Vivili:
Greetings from Manila! I wish I could be with you in Tuvalu. I miss the special smile of people in Tuvalu and look forward to seeing you all in person, hopefully someday soon.
I would like to start by thanking the Government of Tuvalu, and especially the meeting Chair, Honourable Isaia Taape, for organizing the 14th Pacific Health Ministers Meeting, and bringing together health leaders from across the Pacific.
On 11 March 2020, WHO Director-General, Dr Tedros, made a statement about the pandemic. The number of deaths at the time was 4291, but two years later, more than 6 million people around the world have lost their lives.
Fortunately, our Region, so far, has kept the number of people who lost their life to COVID-19 relatively small. I thank all leaders in the Pacific for acting so swiftly and decisively to protect your populations and to save people’s lives.
Across the Western Pacific, we have been responding to this once-in-a-century event by fully utilizing our experiences with having a series of outbreaks and rounds of preparation in the region.
I appreciate your trust, listening to our advice and working together. Action taken by the Pacific was swift. I remember, several countries had already declared national states of emergency by February or March of 2020 long before the virus showed its face in this sub-region.
Since that time, your leadership has gone above and beyond in our efforts to prepare to face this virus. You have built a quarantine system, put border measures, set up the diagnostic capacity, and provided the vaccine to all eligible people including people living in a very remote island and continue to improve health care capacity. We are proud to be working with you.
All of this builds on years of work strengthening preparedness under the Asia Pacific Strategy for Emerging Diseases, known as APSED. I’m glad to see that these efforts are paying off and that countries in the Region have been leveraging these investments for their COVID-19 preparedness and response – both during the pandemic but also in the response to other emergencies.
The deployment of the Tonga Emergency Medical Assistance Team during the response to the recent volcanic eruption and tsunami is a case in point. The Pacific Island countries are increasingly self-reliant and resilient.
I would like to thank Australia, New Zealand, Japan, SPC, partners and UN colleagues who are attending this meeting, as these achievements were possible because a strong partnership exists in the Pacific.
And of course, these have been possible because of the hard work of our health care workers and the trust the leaders and your staff have in the community.
And now our Region is in the epicentre of the Omicron wave, including several Pacific Island countries and areas that are now facing their first community transmission.
Being in a pandemic means that the virus will eventually reach every corner of the world, and therefore vaccine doses must reach the last mile to everyone across the Pacific to protect the vulnerable.
Respecting the context of each country, we are now transitioning from “contain and suppress” to “suppress and live with COVID-19”. We know that vaccines are important, but vaccines alone cannot control the pandemic. It is important to continue developing a system that allows us to sustainably manage continuous surges. We can do that through responding to the Omicron.
I hope this meeting provides another opportunity to share our experiences in the response, in transition and better prepare for future pandemics.
What is clear from the COVID response is that nobody can predict the future, but action today can change the future.
I believe that focusing on building sustainable health systems, inspiring collective action on climate change, and countering the growing burden of NCDs, are the right priority areas.
When we developed For the Future vision in the Region, I was so inspired by the conversations I had with Member States. What is important is taking action today to address the challenges of the future.
When we talk about the future, I am always inspired by the Healthy Islands vision, and the foresight Pacific leaders had when the vision was first developed in 1995. Knowing the challenges we are facing today and expected to tackle in the future, I think this vision has become even more relevant today, and it has stimulated discussions of our regional shared vision, For the Future.
The pandemic has underscored that health is inextricably linked with people's lives and broader social wellbeing. When health is at risk, everything is at risk. We therefore need to ensure that we make the most of the political will and unprecedented momentum for health that currently exists.
The Pacific leadership brought forward rheumatic fever to the global agenda and put safe and affordable surgery on our regional agenda. I am committed to listening to and supporting Member States in the Pacific and advocating for the voice of the Pacific at the regional and global levels. Just like we can learn from each other, the rest of the world can also learn from the Pacific.
I am very much looking forward to our discussions and to continuing our work together, and hopefully seeing you all in person, someday soon.
Thank you and I wish you a successful meeting.