New Delhi (NVI): Union Health Minister Harsh Vardhan chaired the World Health Organization (WHO) Executive board special session yesterday and said challenges such as the COVID-19 pandemic demand a shared response.
Presiding over the fifth special session of the Bureau of the Executive Board as Chairman of the Executive Board, Vardhan welcomed the participants and expressed his deepest condolences for those who died fighting the pandemic and those who are continuing to fight relentlessly and selflessly.
Meanwhile, recollecting the global crisis the pandemic has unleashed, the Minister said, “Today there are compelling circumstances that have forced us all to meet virtually.”
“Governments, industry and philanthropy must pool resources to pay for the risk, the research, manufacturing and distribution, but with the condition that the rewards should be available to everyone, regardless of where they have been developed,” Vardhan was quoted as saying in a Ministry of Health statement.
“All these challenges, such as the present pandemic, demand a shared response because these are the shared threats requiring shared responsibility to act. The shared responsibility is also the core philosophy of our alliance of member nations that comprise WHO,” he said.
Vardhan further added, “Committing to disaster risk reduction and management would require early and transparent identification and communication of risks, maintaining the momentum in investing in people and resilient health systems, strengthened multi-sector collaboration, stress on the swifter generation of evidence, accelerated research & development efforts and rational evidence-based implementation of plans.”
In addition to this, the Minister urged WHO members to work with the global community of partners for the efficient, effective and responsive discharge of public health obligations.
Vardhan also stressed upon the “need to initiate, at the earliest appropriate moment, and in consultation with the Member States, a stepwise process of an impartial, independent, and comprehensive evaluation, including using existing mechanisms, as appropriate, to review experience gained and lessons learned from the WHO-coordinated international health response to COVID-19.”
Moreover, the agenda of the meet included focus on the measures necessary to ensure the full and effective implementation of the terms of resolution WHA 73.1 on COVID-19 response.
The resolution WHA 73.1 titled “COVID-19 response” was co-sponsored by more than 130 countries and calls for the intensification of efforts to control the pandemic and for equitable access to and fair distribution of all essential health technologies and products to combat the virus, the ministry said.
“Observer participants and senior officials of WHO Headquarters were also presented during the session,” it added.
