MOSCOW (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 26th June, 2020) The COVID-19 pandemic is unlikely to be an unrepeatable event and thus requires collective action to prevent similar outbreaks from happening in the future, as well as greater preparedness of healthcare infrastructures and regional supply chains, Philippines President Rodrigo Duterte said at the 36th ASEAN summit on Friday.
"This pandemic is unlikely to be of a kind. We must, therefore, strengthen regional capacity to address future infectious diseases' outbreaks. We can do this by promoting research, and capacity building of health technology and development. We must enable the ASEAN center for biodiversity to contribute to combating wildlife trafficking to prevent the spread of zoonotic diseases," Duterte said.
The president went on to say that the current global pandemic was disruptive in all spheres of life and therefore called on ASEAN member states to enhance cooperation to make fundamental systematic changes.
"To bridge the gap between today's crisis and the future ones we must address the vulnerabilities that COVID-19 revealed in our system. This pandemic has imposed limitations on healthcare and social protection systems... the precarious situation of our workers at home and abroad, vulnerability of our micro-, small- and medium enterprises [SMEs] and the weaknesses of our supply chain... Our task now is to recalibrate our plan so we can build a better sustainable resilient regional supply chain. We have to maximize facilitation initiatives to promote the growth and participation of SMEs in the regional and global value chain," Duterte added.
The World Health Organization (WHO) declared the COVID-19 outbreak a pandemic over three months ago on March 11. To date, more than 9.6 million people have been infected with the coronavirus worldwide, with almost 490,000 fatalities, according to Johns Hopkins University.
ASEAN is holding the 36th summit online to focus on the joint response to public health emergencies and discuss a plan for economic recovery from the coronavirus crisis. The summit will result in the adoption of a number of key documents to support economies and people amid the coronavirus crisis.
ASEAN member states include Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam.
