COVID-19 Meeting: SAC Chairman Addresses 9th Coordination Meeting

Chairman of the State Administration Council Prime Minister of the Provisional Government Senior General Min Aung Hlaing addressed the 9th coordination meeting on COVID-19 prevention, control and treatment activities on Monday in Nay Pyi Taw. The Senior General said the rate of COVID-19 disease infection has dropped due to the supervision of the relevant authorities and the good cooperation of the people, adding the need to diagnose the contact persons of the COVID-19 positive patients to continue to reduce the infection and to be cautious despite the decline rate in virus infection.

The COVID-19 outbreak has caused travel problems and affected production, and amid the striving for living, there are people trading foods and essential medicines with greed. Due to systematic inspections, the high prices of medicines have returned to normal in recent months in Yangon and Mandalay. The Government has been making a concerted effort to get the COVID-19 vaccines.

The Prime Minister stressed the need to effectively take actions against the traders of counterfeit COVID-19 vaccines. Those present at the meeting discussed the preventive measures of variant viruses spreading in the neighbouring countries, the need to use oxygen cylinders with SOP guidelines, disaster preparedness in various hospitals, healthcare services, posting of immunization status on WHO and ASEAN Websites, vaccine arrival and status of re-orders and coordination to re-purchase, status of plans to develop COVID-19 vaccine locally, international humanitarian assistant of COVID-19 vaccines and related equipment, importation status of essential medical supplies, education programmes on healthcare and entertainment programmes on newspapers, television and radio, primary foods being sold in mobile carts to avoid food shortages, services in quarantine centres and construction of oxygen plants, production of essential medical supplies locally, operation of garment factories under the COVID-19 guidelines, COVID-19 vaccines plantation of more than 80,000 factories workers as of 22 August and further plans. Union Ministers for the respective regions and states briefed on the COVID-19 vaccinations in the regions of ethnic armed forces, implementation to vaccinate more than 5 million IDPs in Kachin, Shan, Kayin and Rakhine states in this week, and the systematic record of vaccinated people in regions and states. In his concluding speech, the SAC Chairman said that it needs to conduct healthcare services including prevention, control and treatment activities continuously as the mutation of COVID-19 is occurring.

The WHO and other health organizations set the norms and all should follow them. The relevant organizations and heads of respective regions/ states also should strictly control the public in order to follow the health rules. He then stressed the need to upgrade the hospitals, establish the township, station and district hospitals by observing the figures of international hospitals and set up the ICU for other diseases.

He also highlighted oxygen-related matters. He also gave instructions regarding the importation processes of anti-COVID-19-related materials and equipment via border trade camps, air and sea without any delays, and inspections on the illegal trade of restricted drugs and counterfeit medicines. Currently, the country receives 8 million vaccines and uses 6 million while 2 million are for second doses.