Nay Pyi Taw August 30
The 10th coordination meet-ing of COVID-19 prevention, control and treatment activit-ies took place the meeting hall of Bayintnaung Villa in Nay Pyi Taw this morning, with an address by Chairman of the State Administration Council Prime Minister of the Provisional Government of the Republic of the Union of Myanmar Senior General Min Aung Hlaing.
Also present at the meeting were Vice Chairman of the State Administration Council Deputy Prime Minister Vice-Senior General Soe Win, members of the council, the joint secretary of the council, Union ministers, deputy ministers, senior mili-tary officers from the Office of the Commander-in-Chief (Army) and officials together with chief ministers and officials from regions and states who joined the meeting via video conferencing.
First, the Senior General delivered an opening address, saying that the third wave of COVID-19 started in July at high infection rate. So, the Senior General led the meetings to carry out management tasks so as to effectively undertake the prevention, control and treatment tasks. All were in un-ison in carrying out prevention, control and treatment tasks. the infection rate of COVID-19 accounted for 40.82 percent on 23 July and 40.07 percent on 25 July. Efforts were made to decline a half down of the infection rate in August for the first stage. On 29 August, 3,266 persons of 29,127 persons were approved as the positive patients in medical examinat-ion, accounting for just 10.87 percent. It was satisfactory for plunging of the infection rate into less than 20 percent the government expected. Declining of infection rate was based on cooperation of the people and concerted efforts of the mana-gement organizations.
Although oxygen require-ments happened during the period of the high infection rate, individual donors, organi-zations, ministries and central committee for respective regions and states rapidly supplied needs of oxygen. Such pro-cesses were smooth due to cooperation of officials and people who abided by health restrictions for the disease. With regard to the discipline enforcement for the disease, local ethnic people from border regions of Kachin, Shan, Kayin and Mon states and Taninthayi Region who did not present reports to the authorities about their return to home from Chi-na, Laos and Thailand and they were infected in their native lands. Officials at different levels need to supervise nece-ssary medical examination and protection for returnees from foreign countries in order to plummet the infection rate of COVID-19 in border areas as well as the whole country.
With regard to arrival of CO-VID-19 vaccines and vaccination process, the Senior General said: “A total of 6.5 million units of vaccine have arrived in Myanmar from China till yesterday. Of them, 2.5 million of units were donated and we bought 4 million units, totalling 6.5 million units. India donated 1.7 million units of vaccine and we bought 2 million units. I ordered the Ministry of Tran-sport and Communications and the Ministry of Defence to transport these vaccines which arrived yesterday to regions and states as quickly as possible, depending on the climatic conditions. Primarily, when the vaccines arrive, regions and states need to hand over them to townships and grassroots level under the management of region and state governments. If you need heavy machinery, give requests to us. We’d like to arrange distribution of vaccines in the real time. I’d like to note that one day earlier vaccination will benefit the people better. According to the statements of global countries, the vaccinated persons have better immunity than non-vaccinated persons.
It is not totally said that vacci-nated persons will never be infected. But, they have more potential for suffering from the disease. Otherwise, they may suffer from least impact of the disease. For example, even severe disease may affect them with lesser impacts. They will have more convenience with oxygen and medicine supplies.”
At a time when the newly-arrived vaccines were given to the people, number of vaccinated people will increase. More vaccines bought from abroad will arrive here soon, and such vaccines will be in-jected into the people in time. Not only China and India but other friendship countries Cambodia, Thailand and Viet-nam donated COVID-19 vac-cines to Myanmar. ASEAN pledged to send the medical supplies to Myanmar soon. The government expressed thanks to the countries for their help for prevention, control and treatment of COVID-19 in Myanmar. Mainly, all the participants need to unitedly carry out the tasks. As oxygen supply plays a crucial role in treatment, efforts were made to ensure sufficiency of oxygen in regions and states. Officials need to share knowledge with the people for avoiding loss of lives in unsystematic use of oxygen. Hence, it is necessary to manage availability of oxygen as well as other medical supplies in all parts of regions and states. Public health care services need consider the long term preparations to meet international standard.
Due to high production cost caused by the COVID-19 re-strictions, commodity prices have also increased. Our coun-
try has also seen prices increase, but being able to dome-stically produce agricultural and livestock products and basic foodstuffs can avoid re-aching a dangerous stage of food shortages. The ongoing high prices have resulted from high production cost.
The prime ministers and offi-cials in respective regions and states are also encouraging agricultural and livestock breeding undertakings. As mobile market vehicles sell foodstuffs in Yangon Region, it is heartening to see public conveniences in their daily food and meals. So, those regions and states are urged to work to ensure more food supplies for the convenience of the people.
Meanwhile, it is necessary to maintain food production speed.As fertilizers are required in increasing crop yields, they have to be imported. In this context, local farmers should be motivated to use natural fertilizers effectively. Respective regions and states need to encourage growers to use natural fertilizers and tap the already existing resources effectively in increasing their crop yields. With good rainfall and weather this year, they also must be encouraged to focus on agricultural activities. The prime ministers need to go down to the agricultural fields and encourage the farmers. These are the tasks that can be carried out with united strength and cooperation. Successful agricultural businesses and boosting agricultural products will ensure food sufficiency and bigger income, thereby facilitating the COVID-19 pre-vention and control measures, the Senior General said.
Next, the SAC Vice Chairman Deputy Prime Minister, council members, union ministers, de-puty ministers, senior military officers and others attending the meeting reported on de-creasing COVID-19 cases in the regions and states, control measures in some townships that still see high infection rate by imposing a stay-at-home order there, easing of the restrictions in the township with fewer cases, testing of categorized groups to end chain of virus infections, special focus on control measures, monitoring of the infections in wards and townships of respective regions and states, acceptance of Myanmar citizens re-entering the country through border gates and COVID-19 testing on them, me-asures to prevent the entry of mutated viruses, vaccination processes, continued arrivals of more vaccines and purchase of more, an additional 10 million vaccine doses each to arrive in September and October, pro-mpt vaccination plans when more doses arrive, vaccination of prioritized age groups and prioritizing of the disabled and those with underlying diseases.
They also discussed providing of treatment for COVID-19 positive patients at people’s hospitals and military hospitals, the situation where health staff were infected with the virus, providing of healthcare and other necessary aid to them, contacts and cooperation with officials from other countries and companies in vaccinating the entire population, measures to transport vaccines to the regions and states on a timely basis when they arrive in the country, seeking of contacts with ASEAN and neighbouring countries and international organizations in getting COVID-19 vaccines, related medicines and protective equipment as a donation and plans to vaccinate the people in border regions.
They then reported on daily production of oxygen from State-and private-owned oxy-gen plants and daily oxygen requirements, imported liquid oxygen and decreasing import at present, significant decrease in COVID-19 cases as spot checks in 53 townships with high positivity rate out of 129 stay-at-home townships from 27 to 29 August led to reports of 2,071 cases against 6,292 samples on 27 August with 17.00 percent, 1,478 cases against 17,930 samples on 28 August with 8.24 percent, and 1,764 cases against 3,507 samples on 29 August with 5.44 percent, continued spot checks, tran-sport of passengers, medicine and medical equipment by relief flight, constantly running schedules of domestic flights, passenger buses and trains, arrivals of international con-tainers and fuels at ports and jetties, export of commodities, import of COVID-19 protective medicines and equipment through border gates and sending of telephone messages on health knowledge about COVID-19.
They also reported matters related to measures taken for permission to take out medical supplies and equipment for prevention, control and treatment for COVID-19 which do not require the FDA approval so that they can be distributed to the public quickly, cooperation to take out medical supplies and equipment that require the FDA approval as soon as possi-ble, timely delivery of medical supplies and equipment that have arrived in Myanmar but have not been taken out by some companies, spending the funds for prevention, control and treatment of COVID-19, airing news and educative programs during the outbreak of COVID-19 and future plans, broadcasting the news and programs and other programs for health knowledge on demand in the languages of national races, hospitalization of positive patients in respective defence services hospitals and region commands, transmiss-ion rate in respective regional commands, needs and production of oxygen in plants in respective defence services hospitals, research on monito-ring positive cases, continued discoveries of new mutated variants, efficacy and resistance of different vaccines, production and distribution of masks, hand gel and disposable needles from factories and workshops of the Tatmadaw, infection rate and deaths in world, ASEAN and neighbouring countries and respective townships in the country, distri-bution of goods at reasonable prices to the public by mobile shop vehicles and expansion plans, vaccination programs in border areas between Myanmar and China, imports of me-dical supplies and equipment, production and distribution of medicines for household use from state-owned and private factories in the country, distribution of medicines from phar-macies, online distribution of medicines for the convenience of the public and cooperation of companies, rising prices of fuel oil, exports and imports of basic foodstuffs during the outbreak of COVID-19, publication of delivery and admini-stration of vaccines and mea-sures for prevention, control and treatment of COVID-19 on the WHO website, vaccination programs in IDP camps and the need to compile records the delivery and administration of vaccines and hospitalization in respective states and regions systematically.
After hearing the reports, the Senior General pointed out the needs to bring back those who were left due to various reason during the operations relief flights to Malaysia as soon as possible with the cooperation of relevant ministries, for health authorities to supervise the administration of vaccines as a bottle of vaccine includes five does, to administer vaccines that were delivered previously first and make preparations for vaccines to be delivered for second jabs, to conduct research constantly to develop vaccines from traditional me-dicines in the long term as the pandemic cannot be eliminat-ed completely, to relax rules and regulations in respective ports and stations to distribute medicines timely, to cooperate among relevant departments
for medical supplies that re-quire the FDA approval, to place emphasis on prevention of unscrupulous activities, to take measures to domestically produce foodstuffs and house-hold goods that have to be im-ported and to carry out other necessary measures.
In his concluding remarks, the Senior General explained the sale of common medicines at reasonable prices and the ongoing vaccination program. He said, “Medicine Merchants Association and some compa-nies are distributing medicines directly to the consumers. Yangon has a specific place for medicine shops. We have issu-ed the prices of medicines, especially the important ones, in the dailies. So, the situation has become satisfactory for the consumers to a certain degree. So, I would thank the association. They are doing the job with real goodwill. They are paying attention more to helping the people than making profits. Every business needs profit. But here, profit doesn’t matter, only the goodwill to ensure a fast distribution of me-dicines at fair prices matters. So, I would like to thank them. Infection rate is said to be falling. We have to check the figures, and then, the number of persons who undergo tests and percentage of confirmed cases. We have to take into account all those factors. Any field where checks are con-ducted should not be left out. The Ministry of Health has already raised the issue of contact persons. Some are not contact persons, but have connections in various ways. Some stay put at home. I have already mentioned this ear-lier. Some people in borders areas of regions and states go back to their villages and they never inform about their arrival there to anyone. But if they are infected the number of positive cases will jump.
When officials check the situa-tion, they found many reasons including the failure to inform the respective persons or un-dergo medical test. So, test must be conducted extensively. We must leave no stone unturn-ed in conducting tests. Greater number of checks means greater benefits for COVID-19 control as we will have larger number of results. So, we must check as many as we can.”
Health staff must be patient and systematic in conducting tests. Some are afraid to undergo swab test. So, health staff must explain the process. As test is conducted to save lives, no person who needs medical checkup should be left behind. Public health awareness cam-paigns must be extended as the variant has a higher infect-ion rate and mortality rate. Knowledge about the signs of infection must be made known in wards and villages through exact educational in-formation. TV should air pre-ventive measures through both verbal and written messages. It is important to distribute correct health information, he continued to say.
The indicators showing a fall in infection rate must be based on correct and reliable figures. If there is an actual fall in the infection rate, restriction can be reduced. Failure to pay attention to the virus after the infection rate slowed during the second wave has led to the occurrence of a lot of hardships during the third wave. It is a lesson for us. Factories are permitted to run under rules now. Although office holidays are announced, officials of ministries will have to continue their management undertakings. The situation of infection should be monitored continuously to make careful plans to relaxations.
Priority programs must be laid down for vaccines that will enter the country through border gates in Shan and Kachin states. In addition to Tatmadaw and MPF members, people should also take part in provi-ding security for health staff.
As domestic oxygen demand can be supplied locally, oxygen should be imported for reserve stocks only if it is really necessary. Offices of ministries and regions and states must successfully carry out COVID-19 prevention, control and treatment and socio-economic development undertakings through good management and the public participation is needed.
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