–Dr Zafar Mirza urges India to lift lockdown in IOK after confirmation of coronavirus case to facilitate treatment
–Indian PM Modi proposes setting up an emergency fund to fight coronavirus outbreak, offers $10m to get it going
ISLAMABAD: Special Assistant to Prime Minister on Health Dr Zafar Mirza on Sunday called upon the members of the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC) to adopt a calm, calculated, and deliberate response to fight coronavirus.
He said this while speaking at a video conference of SAARC countries to devise a joint strategy to protect people of the region from falling prey to COVID-19.
Stressing the need for prevention and caution, the PM’s aide strongly advised against panic. He said that Pakistan was amongst the first few countries to undertake a joint evaluation of the state of preparedness to cope with health emergencies in the context of international health regulations 2005.
Dr Mirza said that Pakistan had isolated the positive cases and their contacts were being traced proactively. He said that Prime Minister Imran Khan is personally overseeing these efforts.
Taking notice of the coronavirus cases which was reported in Indian Occupied Kashmir (IOK), Dr Mirza urged India to lift lockdown from the territory to enable the containment and relief efforts in view of a health emergency.
“It is a matter of concern that COVID-19 has been reported from IOK and in view of a health emergency, it is imperative that all lockdown in the territory must be lifted immediately,” he said.
Highlighting Pakistan’s response strategy, the special assistant said that it has four pillars, which include governance and financing, prevention, mitigation, and communication.
He said that the government has decided to close all our educational institutions for three weeks, entire western border for two weeks, restrict international flights to three airports only and ban all large public gatherings, reinforced screening measures at the airports and at the ground processing.
He informed the participants that the National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA) has been mandated and command and control centres have been established at the federal and provincial levels for effective coordination and surveillance at all levels.
Dr Mirza said that COVID-19 has been characterised as a global pandemic, but at the same time it is deemed controllable, provided timely and appropriate public health measures are put in place.
He said that Pakistan has been involved in the containment efforts right from the outset of the outbreak. He added that the authorities have been alert to the dangers and have put in place appropriate public health measures and developed required protocols and guidelines for the safety of citizens.
He further urged the member countries to follow guidelines set by the WHO and also learn from the experience of SAARC observer states, “particularly China, which has effectively addressed the COVID-19 challenge, despite being [the country] from where it originated”.
Dr Mirza called attention to the importance of “effective coordination at all levels” in the present situation and warned against “stignatisation and stereotyping”, terming them “counter-productive”.
“The pandemic forces us to think not in terms of nations and states, but as a collective,” he told the heads of the member states. “The unprecedented challenge, therefore, warrants unprecedented responses. We must recognise that national and local responses remain the most critically important. It is equally important to pursue evidence and science-based responses. Stigmatisation and stereotyping are counter-productive,” he added.
He further said that the challenge at hand, demands sagacity, vision, and synergy.
Dr Mirza proposed that the SAARC secretariat is the best place to coordinate at the regional level, which should be mandated with establishing a working group of national authorities for health information and data exchange as well as coordination for global responses in real-time.
He also reiterated Pakistan’s earlier proposal of hosting the SAARC health ministers’ conference at an appropriate time. He added that the regional countries should reach out to specialised development partners, including WHO for mobilisation of technical advice and resources.
Winding up the debate, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi proposed creating a voluntary COVID-19 emergency fund in which India would contribute $10 million as well as training of the ‘medical response team’ for SAARC countries.
“Any of us can use the fund to meet the cost of immediate actions,” Prime Minister Narendra Modi told regional leaders, adding that India would also offer rapid response teams and other experts to deal with the crisis.
Afghan President Ashraf Ghani, Bangladesh Prime Minister Hasina Wajid, Maldivian President Ibrahim Mohamed Solih, Sri Lankan President Gotabaya Rajapaksa, Nepalese Prime Minister KP Sharma Oli, and Bhutan Prime Minister Lotay Tshering also shared their views through video conference and called upon collaborated and joint efforts to overcome the pandemic.
The proposal for a video moot was put forward by the Indian premier on Friday who, through a tweet, called for a strong strategy to fight the pandemic. The tweet, however, came a day after Pakistan had said that it was ready to cooperate and extend any assistance to its neighbors including India to deal with the virus.
