{"id":138228,"date":"2021-09-24T20:33:33","date_gmt":"2021-09-25T00:33:33","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/antiguanewsroom.com\/?p=138228"},"modified":"2021-09-24T20:33:33","modified_gmt":"2021-09-25T00:33:33","slug":"paho-director-calls-for-strengthened-regional-health-systems-in-wake-of-covid-19-pandemic-during-opening-of-directing-council","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/antiguanewsroom.com\/paho-director-calls-for-strengthened-regional-health-systems-in-wake-of-covid-19-pandemic-during-opening-of-directing-council\/","title":{"rendered":"PAHO Director calls for strengthened regional health systems in wake of COVID-19 pandemic during opening of Directing Council"},"content":{"rendered":"
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At today\u2019s opening of the\u00a059th<\/sup>\u00a0Directing Council\u00a0<\/a>of the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO), Director Carissa F. Etienne asserted that the \u201ctragic march of the COVID-19 pandemic\u201d has exposed the urgent need for investments to strengthen health systems and technology production across the Americas.<\/p>

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The region\u2019s inability to procure key COVID-19 supplies and equipment, including vaccines, \u201cheightened our vulnerabilities and severely compromised our pandemic response,\u201d Dr. Etienne said. \u201cHowever, this alarming circumstance has galvanized us into recognizing the obligatory need for regional self-sufficiency in health technologies.\u201d<\/p>\n

She added that PAHO recently launched a platform to boost regional vaccine production and that the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB), the World Bank, and other partners have expressed interest in collaboration.<\/p>

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The Directing Council, held virtually from 20-24 September this year, brings together ministers and other health authorities from countries throughout the Americas to discuss and deliberate on important policy recommendations for the region.<\/p>

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During the session, Dr. Etienne\u2019s presented PAHO\u2019s Annual Report, which covers the period between 1 July 2020 and 30 June 2021, and focuses on PAHO\u2019s technical cooperation to assist countries in responding to the pandemic while maintaining and strengthening health gains.<\/p>\n

Dr. Etienne also called attention to the \u201cenormity\u201d of the pandemic\u2019s human toll, noting that as of last Friday, there were 87.6 million COVID-19 cases and 2.16 million deaths.<\/p>

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\u201cIt is noteworthy that after every disaster, be it a natural disaster, a major disease outbreak like Ebola or a financial crisis, we all reaffirm our commitment to building resilient health systems,\u201d she said. \u201cSadly, if nothing else, this pandemic has demonstrated that our continuing failure to deliver on this commitment does indeed carry a high price tag in terms of the millions of lives lost and economies that are destroyed.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI urge us all, to invest in our health systems and swiftly ensure their transformation so they have the capacity to respond to the needs of all people, every day and to better respond to pandemics and other disasters when they do occur,\u201d Dr. Etienne concluded.<\/p>

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Selected quotes from the opening session of the 59th<\/sup>\u00a0Directing Council:<\/strong><\/p>

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Chilean President Sebasti\u00e1n Pi\u00f1era<\/strong>\u00a0emphasized the crucial need for international collaboration. Chile is \u201cpromoting a new treaty for prevention and response before future pandemics. We must assure that when this happens, we will be much better prepared and we will be able to act swiftly, quickly, with coordination, and with solidarity.\u201d<\/p>\n

U.S. Secretary of Health and Human Services, Xavier Becerra,<\/strong>\u00a0acknowledged the inequity exposed by the pandemic. \u201cWhile the COVID-19 pandemic intensified inequities in America and around the world, we must not let it derail our goals of advancing health and well-being for all our people,\u201d he said. \u201cWe are proud to have directly donated 38 million COVID-19 vaccine doses to 15 countries in Latin America to date.\u201d \u00a0He added, \u201cWe look forward to sharing more in the months ahead as supplies become available.\u201d<\/p>\n

Mauricio Claver-Carone, President of the IDB<\/strong>, expressed support for \u201cmultilateral alliances\u201d to increase regional vaccine production and indicated that the pandemic also highlighted the need for digitization of public health information. \u00a0\u201cThis is essential to strengthen epidemiological surveillance actions; facilitate access to and use of services through telemedicine; enable communication; and provide data for real-time decision making, among other uses,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

The Director General of the World Health Organization (WHO), Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus<\/strong>\u00a0provided an update on the COVID-19 global vaccination targets set out by WHO.
\n\u201cI am pleased that in the Americas, almost 90% of member states have now reached the 10% of the vaccination target, but less than one third of countries have reached the 40% target,\u201d Dr. Tedros said. WHO and PAHO, he added, will continue to support countries in the region through COVAX to increase the availability of vaccines.<\/p>\n

Luis Almagro, Secretary General of the Organization of American States (OAS)\u00a0<\/strong>stated: \u201cWe will continue to do our part to promote solidarity, equality and social inclusion in our joint and strategic actions with PAHO to help protect the most vulnerable among us.\u201d<\/p>\n

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At today\u2019s opening of the\u00a059th\u00a0Directing Council\u00a0of the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO), Director Carissa F. Etienne asserted that the \u201ctragic march of the COVID-19 pandemic\u201d has exposed the urgent need for investments to strengthen health systems and technology production across the Americas. The region\u2019s inability to procure key COVID-19 supplies and equipment, including vaccines, \u201cheightened […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":138223,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-138228","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-regional"],"yoast_head":"\nPAHO Director calls for strengthened regional health systems in wake of COVID-19 pandemic during opening of Directing Council - Antigua News Room<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/antiguanewsroom.com\/paho-director-calls-for-strengthened-regional-health-systems-in-wake-of-covid-19-pandemic-during-opening-of-directing-council\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"PAHO Director calls for strengthened regional health systems in wake of COVID-19 pandemic during opening of Directing Council\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"At today\u2019s opening of the\u00a059th\u00a0Directing Council\u00a0of the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO), Director Carissa F. 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