Ninth coordination meeting on COVID-19 prevention, control and treatment held, with an address delivered by Chairman of State Administration Council Prime Minister Senior General Min Aung Hlaing
Nay Pyi Taw August 23
The ninth coordination meeting on COVID-19 prevention, control and treatment was held at the meeting hall of the Bayintnaung Villa in Nay Pyi Taw this morning, with an address delivered by Chairman of the State Administration Council Prime Minister of the Provisional Government of the Republic of Union of Myanmar Senior General Min Aung Hlaing.
Also present were Vice Chairman of SAC Deputy Prime MinisterVice-Senior General Soe Win, SAC members, SAC Joint Secretary, Union ministers, senior military officers of the Office of the Commanderin-Chief (Army) and officials.
Prime ministers of Region and State Administration Councils and officials took part in the meeting through Video Conferencing.
In his address, the Senior General said COVID-19 infection was not so obvious at the initial period, but it spread quickly during the third wave.
As the central committee was able to conduct prevention, containment and treatment activities in time, infection rate has been reduced to a certain level. A total of 4,320 positive cases were found when 15,740 persons were tested on 9 July; on 14 July, 7,083 positive cases were detected when 21,350 were checked which was 34 percent of the tested persons.
Now, there is a sharp fall in the infection rate as the central committee has taken containment measures and state/region wise supervision as necessary.
Due to the efforts to reduce the infection rate by half, the number of positive cases fell from 3,180 on 1 August to 2,173 on 22 August during which 8,991 persons were tested. So, there was a 24.17 percent drop in the confirmed cases. Due to the supervision of the relevant officials and good public cooperation the infection rate fell.
Contact persons also need to undergo medical check in reducing the infection rate. Checks must be conducted in all possible areas. “There will be a cure only if the virus can be identified.” Then, prevention will become more effective.
Although the infection rate is dropping, people must have awareness of the virus.
Commodity production was hit by COVID-19 that caused travel difficulties. The government is doing its utmost to provide food. In this situation, there arise avaricious persons.
Thanks to the systematic checks and control measures, the prices of medicines fell back to normal levels in Yangon and Mandalay regions which saw skyrocketing prices.Myanmar people have the goodwill to make donations and it is one of their characteristics. So, based on this spirit harmony must be ensured. Not only Myanmar, but all countries in the world are facing an economic downturn.
So, checks must be made to control the human greed in the food and medicine business.
It is globally accepted that vaccines can reduce the possibility of infection and protect the people from the virus. Because of this knowledge, the number of people wishing to be vaccinated is rising. The government is also working hard to get vaccines. The former government tried to get 30 million doses from India. But after the first batch, no further batches arrived in the country for various reasons. The vaccines were imported from India only as it was during the time when the second wave ended.
Infection rate is high during the third wave and the worldwide positive cases hit the 211 million mark. Fatality rate is also high. So, all the countries are trying to get vaccines. In this situation, we have to overcome hardships to get vaccines for the people. So, officials of regions and states should make system efforts for ensuring a fast vaccination program. Earlier vaccination means sooner protection for the public.
Some fall victim to fake vaccines that came from foreign countries. The Ministry of Health issued an announcement on 22 August about the fake drugs. Officials of the respective borders must conduct systematic checks. Permits to import vaccines were given to respective organizations and drug companies. Awareness campaigns are required especially at border areas to save the people from fake vaccines.
As counterfeit vaccines are dangerous to human life, effective action is required.
There was a drop in summer paddy sown acreage in the previous season. As the monsoon is strong at present, farmers should effectively use the situation in systematically growing rice and other crops. There will be no food shortage if the country has an abundant food supply. Certain global countries are now facing food shortages.
If the country can produce surplus food, it can export it to other countries and earn more foreign currency. So, prime ministers and officials of regions and states must assist and encourage farmers.
The Vice-Senior General, SAC members, union ministers, senior military officers and other participants presented the drop in the number of positive cases in regions and states, issuance of further stay at home orders to reduce the infection rate in certain townships where it is still high, detection of variants in world countries and neighbours, preventive measures against infection and variants, the need to use oxygen in accord with SOP Guide Line, natural disaster prevention at hospitals, healthcare services and other aids for health staff, hospital-wise ICU upgrading programs, progress in vaccination
to this date, posting of the vaccination activities on ASEAN Website and WHO Website, arrival of vaccines,further orders, further contacts and negotiations to import them, local vaccine production program, vaccine imports by private companies and recording of the vaccination program, donation of COVID-19 vaccines, related materials and humanitarian assistance from the international community and future plans for donations, operations of relief flights to bring back nationals and future relief flights, imports and distribution of equipment and medicines for prevention, control and Ninth coordination meeting on COVID-19 prevention, control and treatment held, with an address delivered by Chairman of State Administration Council Prime Minister Senior General Min Aung Hlaing Nay Pyi Taw August 23 The ninth coordination meeting on COVID-19 prevention, control and treatment was held at the meeting hall of the Bayintnaung Villa in Nay Pyi Taw this morning, with an address delivered by Chairman of the State Administration Council Prime Minister of the Provisional Government of the Republic of Union of Myanmar Senior General Min Aung Hlaing.
Also present were Vice Chairman of SAC Deputy Prime MinisterVice-Senior General Soe Win, SAC members, SAC Joint Secretary, Union ministers, senior military officers of the Office of the Commanderin-Chief (Army) and officials.
Prime ministers of Region and State Administration Councils and officials took part in the meeting through Video Conferencing.
In his address, the Senior General said COVID-19 infection was not so obvious at the initial period, but it spread quickly during the third wave.
As the central committee was able to conduct prevention, containment and treatment activities in time, infection rate has been reduced to a certain level. A total of 4,320 positive cases were found when 15,740 persons were tested on 9 July; on 14 July, 7,083 positive cases were detected when 21,350 were checked which was 34 percent of the tested persons.
Now, there is a sharp fall in the infection rate as the central committee has taken containment measures and state/region wise supervision as necessary.
Due to the efforts to reduce the infection rate by half, the number of positive cases fell from 3,180 on 1 August to 2,173 on 22 August during which 8,991 persons were tested. So, there was a 24.17 percent drop in the confirmed cases. Due to the supervision of the relevant officials and good public cooperation the infection rate fell.
Contact persons also need to undergo medical check in reducing the infection rate. Checks must be conducted in all possible areas. “There will be a cure only if the virus can be identified.” Then, prevention will become more effective.
Although the infection rate is dropping, people must have awareness of the virus.
Commodity production was hit by COVID-19 that caused travel difficulties. The government is doing its utmost to provide food. In this situation, there arise avaricious persons.
Thanks to the systematic checks and control measures, the prices of medicines fell back to normal levels in Yangon and Mandalay regions which saw skyrocketing prices.Myanmar people have the goodwill to make donations and it is one of their characteristics. So, based on this spirit harmony must be ensured. Not only Myanmar, but all countries in the world are facing an economic downturn.
So, checks must be made to control the human greed in the food and medicine business.
It is globally accepted that vaccines can reduce the possibility of infection and protect the people from the virus. Because of this knowledge, the number of people wishing to be vaccinated is rising. The government is also working hard to get vaccines. The former government tried to get 30 million doses from India. But after the first batch, no further batches arrived in the country for various reasons. The vaccines were imported from India only as it was during the time when the second wave ended.
Infection rate is high during the third wave and the worldwide positive cases hit the 211 million mark. Fatality rate is also high. So, all the countries are trying to get vaccines. In this situation, we have to overcome hardships to get vaccines for the people. So, officials of regions and states should make system efforts for ensuring a fast vaccination program. Earlier vaccination means sooner protection for the public.
Some fall victim to fake vaccines that came from foreign countries. The Ministry of Health issued an announcement on 22 August about the fake drugs. Officials of the respective borders must conduct systematic checks. Permits to import vaccines were given to respective organizations and drug companies. Awareness campaigns are required especially at border areas to save the people from fake vaccines.
As counterfeit vaccines are dangerous to human life, effective action is required.
There was a drop in summer paddy sown acreage in the previous season. As the monsoon is strong at present, farmers should effectively use the situation in systematically growing rice and other crops. There will be no food shortage if the country has an abundant food supply. Certain global countries are now facing food shortages.
If the country can produce surplus food, it can export it to other countries and earn more foreign currency. So, prime ministers and officials of regions and states must assist and encourage farmers.
The Vice-Senior General, SAC members, union ministers, senior military officers and other participants presented the drop in the number of positive cases in regions and states, issuance of further stay at home orders to reduce the infection rate in certain townships where it is still high, detection of variants in world countries and neighbours, preventive measures against infection and variants, the need to use oxygen in accord with SOP Guide Line, natural disaster prevention at hospitals, healthcare services and other aids for health staff, hospital-wise ICU upgrading programs, progress in vaccination to this date, posting of the vaccination activities on ASEAN Website and WHO Website, arrival of vaccines,further orders, further contacts and negotiations to import them, local vaccine production program, vaccine imports by private companies and recording of the vaccination program, donation of COVID-19 vaccines, related materials and humanitarian assistance from the international community and future plans for donations, operations of relief flights to bring back nationals and future relief flights, imports and distribution of equipment and medicines for prevention, control and treatment of COVID-19, measures and coordination for the smooth flow of commodities, coordination measures for inspection and issuance of commodities with the approvals of the FDA, awareness-raising campaigns in newspapers, state-owned as well as private television channels and radio stations, broadcasting of songs, short stories, interviews, performance of traditional troupes and others programs for peace of mind, wisdom and reduction of stress of the public during the stay-at-home period and future programs, imports, distribution and domestic production of oxygen, completion of vaccination programs in targeted areas and future plans, return of Myanmar nationals through borders, diagnosis tests conducted to returnees and treatments given to those who tested positive and transportation of returnees who tested negative to their homes, distribution of basic foodstuffs from mobile shops for help the public overcome the difficulties, distribution of medicines for family use at reasonable prices, situation of treatments for COVID-19 patients in defence services hospitals and treatment centres, construction and completion of oxygen plants, spread of variants of coronavirus across the world during the first, second and third waves, production and distribution of prevention equipment, oxygen, disposable needles and other related material at home, production and distribution of medicines from stateowned and private factories, formation and functions of supervisory teams for prevention of price increase for medicines and goods, falling prices of medicines for family use, resumption of operations of 49 garment factories including 38 factories which were closed during the first wave and 11 new factories in accordance with COVID-19 restrictions due to orders received during the third wave and creating job opportunities for more than 20,000 workers, vaccinationof factory and workshop workers and completion of vaccination programs for more than 80,000 workers as of 22 August and future programs, the needs for responsible officials to review the outbreak, deaths, hospitalization and oxygen need to make necessary preparations for real situation, collection of data to conduct vaccination programs in areas of NCA signatory EAOs and measures taken to inoculate targeted groups there as soon as possible, measures taken to vaccinate more than 50,000 IDPs out of 165,269 eligible IDPs who are older than 18 years among more than 500,000 IDPs in IDP camps in Kachin State, Shan State, Kayin State and Rakhine State and systematic documentation of fully vaccinated people in respective states and regions. The Senior General pointed out the need to encourage the resumption of factory operations and to observe rules and regulations for prevention, control and treatment of COVID-19, for factory owners to place emphasis on the health of workers and for authorities of respective states and regions to fulfil the needs.
Afterwards, the Senior General delivered conclusion remarks, saying it is necessary to provide healthcare services without interruption, to carry out tasks for prevention and treatments continuously as new variants of the virus are emerging, to observe the COVID-19 standards of the WHO, for the central body and emergency response teams to supervise the tasks and to monitor the observance of rules and regulations of the public, to meet all aspects of hospitals in upgrading them as designs and standards of hospitals in the international community can be learnt easily nowadays, to take necessary measures in upgrading township, station and district hospitals by doing so, to reserve ICU rooms for COVID-19 patients as well as other patients as the government will provide enough funds for them and to cooperate between hospital staff, service personnel and the public for upgrading hospitals, to clear drainage systems, sanitation and strengthening of hospital fences.
Then, in respect of measures on oxygen requirement, he said,” Regarding the oxygen requirement, we all made efforts critically to acquire oxygen when oxygen requirement was very high in the last June and July. The highest requirement level was to have 31,298 oxygen cylinders on July 19 according to a world monitoring indicator.
The requirement was 18,667 cylinders on August 20. Now, our production capacity is more than 40,000 oxygen cylinders.
What I mean is that we are now in the position to be able to produce more oxygen than the highest requirement volume.
Here, I like the oxygen on medical purpose to be the systematically refined oxygen.
I talked about this matter in the last meetings. All are to be made systematically inclusive of oxygen cylinders and make the cylinders clean and spruce.
If we talk about oxygen next time, we will talk about how to try to enable the townships to have access to oxygen. It is compulsory that mainly, we must take measures to acquire oxygen for the places having difficulties in transportation like the townships in Kachin and Chin states, for example the township of Nanyun in Sagaing Region. It is a bit hard to go there. It is a bit easier to get to Lahe through Hkamti. This is just an example. Another example is Manaung. There are just two accesses, by air route and by water route, to get to Manaung if the weather condition is fine. There is no access to the motor road to Manaung. So, I mean we have to make sure that such a place of Manaung must have a sort of capacity for acquiring oxygen so that it could stand and survive itself. Efforts must be made to enable remote places in the regions and states to have access to acquiring oxygen without keeping in mind that they are not districts or townships.
It must take necessary measures so that residents of such places will not have worries, for example, means are to be sought to enable such places to have electricity access. Do they need a small hydropower plant project? Do they need a 500 kilowatt power supply? Or do they need 1000 kilowatt? Or do they need 200 or 300 kilowatts? When the power supply plan is ready, the task to be taken is to link the electricity plan with the oxygen plant project. There is nothing more important than human beings and lives.”
COVID-19 prevention medicines and accessories are being imported through border trade gates and air and maritime routes, and measures are to be taken not to delay in the import process and clearance of such imported items with necessary inspection and supervisory action. Inspection must be performed in order that there will be no import of restricted medicines and fake medicines with a sense of avarice.
If such a kind of import is found, action must be effectively taken against it.
Regarding the educational measures, besides the measures taken by the Ministry of Information, it is needed to carry out educational tasks in the regions and states through making notifications with use of loud speakers and erecting poster signs on health awareness.
Particularly, such educational measures are to be taken more in the regions of national races. As only if educational notifications on health awareness and knowledge are seen and heard daily, there will be a sense of consideration, it is necessary to widely take educational measures.
It is necessary to systematically perform vaccination programme on a prioritized specification plan basis as health staff working on the front line to curb and prevent COVID-19, those working in organizations on manufacturing industry of the State, those working in organizations on the public transport, those discharging duties on defence and security sectors of the State and their families need to be healthy.
COVID-19 vaccine is being delivered to all the states and regions as quickly as possible through the systems of the State’s Air Force and the Tatmadaw’s logistic network. It is needed to systematically keep the vaccine without having damage and to perform vaccination as fast as possible. It is learnt that the fatality rate is high in the group of old people and that the fatalities are 80 percent in the age of 50 and over.
Therefore, priority of vaccination is given to the old age group of people. So far, a total of eight million doses of vaccine have arrived and of them, six million doses have been jabbed. There are two million doses remaining for the second time shot.On the other hand, it is necessary to stay well and healthy for a better immune system and to do physical exercises for good health as well. It is to take not only educational measures on COVID-19 but also those on basic health and to carry out tasks for ensuring smoothness in convenience of accommodations including meals as well. It is needed to take tasks for ensuring smoothness in manufacturing, agricultural and breeding sectors for being rich in foods in the regions. Basically, it is mainly needed to make efforts to enhance economic growth of the people and the State. If good intention is paid to individual duties, success could be achieved for one’s job and could be helpful to development of the State and improvement of the socioeconomic life of the people. Therefore, good intention is to be paid for our duties.