SE-Asian Countries Done Remarkably Well Managing Pandemic -- CDC SE-Asia Regional Director

KUALA LUMPUR, Aug 27 (Bernama) -- Southeast Asian countries has done remarkably well in managing the COVID-19 pandemic since the early days, with almost half of the countries in the region now moving towards the right direction in pushing down the cases and controlling the disease. Centre for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) Southeast Asia Regional Director, Dr John MacArthur, said today that Thailand, being the country detecting the first confirmed cases of COVID-19 outside Wuhan, China in early 2020, had already put things in place to detect that case even before it arrived in the airport because they had been investing a lot in pandemic preparedness. "For more than 15 years, this Southeast Asia region has collectively been working, strengthening core capacity (and) responding to public health threats including surveillance, emergency response, work force development through training, disease detectives, and strengthening laboratory system. "So, I would say in the early days, Southeast Asia did remarkably well for the most part. There were a few countries that had challenges, but remarkably well in combating the emergence of this (COVID-19) virus," he said during a question and answer session at the virtual media briefing on the official launch of the CDC Southeast Asia Regional Office. US Vice President Kamala Harris launched the US CDC Southeast Asia Regional Office in Hanoi, Vietnam, at a ceremony on Wednesday (Aug 25) during her three-day visit to the country. The new Regional Office, based in Ngô Quyền Street in downtown area of Vietnam's capital city, is one of four CDC regional offices in the world. It will strengthen CDC’s ability to meet its mission of protecting Americans and people of the region by responding more rapidly to health threats wherever they occur and building key relationships to tackle shared health priorities. Commenting further, MacArthur said that the COVID-19 cases per population in Southeast Asian region is actually significantly lower than the global number. "So, as bad as things may seem at times in Southeast Asia, relative to the global pandemic numbers, they’re lower," he said, adding some tools used previously for the pandemic response is no longer effective with the emergence of new variants like Delta strain. He said the United States has provided more than 23 million vaccine doses in emergency health and humanitarian assistance to ASEAN members to fight COVID-19, including six million doses to Vietnam. "We’ve also pledged US$500,000 to the ASEAN COVID-19 Response Fund, which will support the purchase of additional vaccines," he added. Meanwhile, CDC Chief Medical Officer Dr Mitchell Wolfe, in the briefing, said the CDC South-East Asia Regional Office in Hanoi is built on the basis of unity the Southeast Asian countries have demonstrated all this while during the pandemic and through organisations like ASEAN. "We want to emphasise that we are profoundly grateful for the support that Southeast Asian countries have given to Americans during this crisis in areas like repatriation flights and keeping critical supply lines open for essential medical equipment," he said, adding the CDC has worked globally for more than 70 years. Wolfe also highlighted that the COVID-19 pandemic has driven home the concept that global health security transcends borders, adding that CDC’s regional strategy embodies its commitment to strengthening global health security around the world through cross-country collaborations. -- BERNAMA