Hon Minister’s response to the Regional Director’s Annual Report on the Work of WHO in the South-East Asia Region (2020)
Honourable Minister Congratulated Dr. Poonam Singh, for the Regional Director’s Annual Report that comprehensively captured the collective work of WHO and Members States in the Region. Hon Minister thanked WHO for the support extended to Sri Lanka, especially on the country’s COVID-19 effort with access to vaccines through the COVAX facility; and, for the life-saving medical equipment and supplies. Hon Minister emphasized that, for Sri Lanka, saving lives and protecting the population was the highest priority and the country had employed a comprehensive strategy for this, combining vaccination with public health and social measures.
Hon Minister noted that although the country’s health systems had been put to the test by COVID-19, Sri Lanka has made important progress including using lessons learnt from the pandemic. As the forefront is the vaccination effort. As of today, 85.87% of the population over 20 years old has been vaccinated with one dose and 61.94% with both doses. Further, COVID-19 has underlined the importance of innovative approaches for improvement in health, particularly using digital technology. WHO has supported a tracker to assist with real-time monitoring of Covid-19 as well as a system for smart COVID-19 vaccine certification. Also with WHO support, Sri Lanka has used virtual platforms to train and mentor health staff through, for example, the NCD learning Hub and learning management system.