The World Health Organisation (WHO) has today held its 73rd session via video-conference for the first time.
Health Minister Faeqa bint Said Al-Saleh joined representatives of 194 other WHO member countries in the virtual session which was held in the Geneva-based United Nations Office.
Bahrain’s statement was delivered during the session, highlighting international concerted efforts to combat the novel coronavirus (COVID-19), which took a heavy toll on all sectors and put an unprecedented burden on health, social and economic and economic services worldwide.
The statement paid tribute, on the occasion of the 2020 “International Year of the Nurse and the Midwife, to all medical teams and health professionals who are standing on the front-line of the fight against the pandemic.
The statement urged unified efforts and cooperation between countries, stressing the need to take comprehensive measures to limit the spread of the virus and find treatment.
It highlighted Bahrain’s integrated governmental approach in responding to the COVID-19 outbreak, which contributed to slowing the spread of the pandemic.
It underlined efforts led by His Royal Highness Prince Salman bin Hamad Al-Khalifa, Crown Prince, Deputy Supreme Commander and First Deputy Premier, pointing out the establishment of the National Taskforce for Combating COVID-19 to manage all precautionary measures, take action to mitigate the pandemic fallout, mobilise the public and implement world-standard tracing procedures.
The statement highlighted Bahrain’s keenness to provide the necessary funding to increase the capacity of hospitals, quarantine, isolation and laboratory testing sites, and to develop a plan to secure the stocks needed to carry out lab tests, intensive care equipment and protection equipment. A complete plan was also drawn up to recruit, qualify and train the necessary manpower.
It underlined Bahrain’s COVID-19 case management and therapeutic capacity improvement, adding that the Kingdom’s treatment protocols have proven effective in enabling a large number of infected patients to recover.
It noted that Bahrain was the first Arab country to join the “solidarity test” of the first vaccine. The Kingdom has also started the clinical treatment experiments, using plasma.collected from from recovered patients.