22 Oct
Vice President U Myint Swe, in his capacity as the Chairman of the COVID-19 Control and Emergency Response Committee, presided over the third coordination meeting of the committee yesterday.
The meeting via videoconferencing was held at the Ministry of Home Affairs in Nay Pyi Taw and was attended by Union Minister for Home Affairs Lt-Gen Soe Htut, Deputy Minister Major-General Soe Tint Naing and officials, while the Union Ministers from the Ministry of Office of the Union Government, Ministry of Defence, the Ministry of Border Affairs, the Ministry of Religious Affairs and Culture, the Ministry of Labour, Immigration and Population, the Ministry of Health and Sports, and the Ministry of Social Welfare, Relief and Resettlement, as well as the Chief of General Staff (Army, Navy and Air) from the Office of the Commander-in-Chief (Army), the Deputy Minister for Transport and Communications and its Permanent Secretary.
At the meeting, the Vice President explained the formation of the 10-member committee headed by himself with 11 assigned tasks, by the Office of the President on 30 March 2020.
With the participation of Union Ministers and the Chief of General Staff (Army, Navy and Air), the committee is implementing the directives of the National-Level Central Committee on Prevention, Control and Treatment of COVID-19, and has organized the 1st and 2nd coordination meetings on 3 April and 14 April this year.
The committee has also set up its 21-member Secretariat led by the Deputy Minister for Home Affairs and directors from 10 Union-level ministries for the effective performance of duties which is working on a 24-hour basis. Regional level emergency response committees were also formed on 6 April this year with the approval of National-Level Central COVID-19 Committee. The Vice President also talked about the committee’s works on contact tracing for early quarantine, searching the persons who had contact with infected persons in collaboration with the relevant ministries, regular videoconferencing between the Secretariat and the regional offices of the COVID-19 control and emergency response committee. List of persons who had contact with infected persons was distributed on a real-time basis to the Nay Pyi Taw Council, and states/regions. Furthermore, in cases where the Ministry of Health and Sports was having difficulties in contacting the “contact persons”, for cases where only the NRC numbers were available and cases where the person could not be contacted by phone although the phone number was available; in such cases, investigations were made with the help of relevant ministries for purposes of identification.
The committee also took part in the distribution of essential commodities for people with no regular income from 4,006,302 households from 10 April to 19 April this year.
Legal actions have been taken in 26 cases for spreading false news on social networks and other sources to create public panic and 14,577 cases for breaching the COVID-19 rules of the Ministry of Health and Sports.
The committee also arranged transport and quarantine facilities for the returnees through border crossings and airports to their respective areas. He added that while the Union-level ministries were working together for containment of COVID-19, the Tatmadaw had been conducting medical tests, treatments and quarantine for monks, nuns and ordinary people from 26 May 2020 until now.
Secretary (1) of the committee and Union Minister U Min Thu discussed implementing the tasks of the COVID-19 Control and Emergency Response Committee by the Nay Pyi Taw Council and at the state/region levels in coordination with the relevant ministries.
Secretary (2) of the committee and Union Minister Lt-Gen Soe Htut explained the works of the Secretariat.
Union Minister for Defence Lt-Gen Sein Win and Union Minister for Border Affairs Lt-Gen Ye Aung briefed about legal actions taken and preparations for quarantine facilities.
Union Minister for Religious Affairs Thura U Aung Ko explained quarantine facilities at the religious buildings under the ministry, medical treatments of infected monks and nuns, cash donations and food supplies to the monasteries and nunneries.
Union Minister for Labour, Immigration and Population U Thein Swe reported on inspections being made for adherence to healthcare guidelines at the factories and businesses, the return of Myanmar migrant workers, the assistance of social security fund for insured workers and confirmed positive cases at the workplaces.
Union Minister for Health and Sports Dr Myint Htwe presented the containment measures against COVID-19, cooperation with the Tatmadaw and effective legal actions taken against those who breached the rules.
Union Minister Dr Win Myat Aye discussed preparations for community-based facility quarantine, awareness programmes and relief supplies in respective areas.
General Mya Tun Oo explained the confirmed cases and quarantined persons of Tatmadaw members, designated hospitals for the civilian patients in the first wave, additional designated hospitals to accommodate the increasing number of cases in the second wave, the formation of 60 medical corps in respective military commands, conducting medical tests to civilians, Tatmadaw personnel and their families, supplies of 23 relief items and over 1,000 oxygen tanks and meals for positive cases and persons under investigation.
Deputy Minister for Transport and Communications U Kyaw Myo and its Permanent Secretary U Soe Thein explained organizing relief flights for the returnees from foreign countries, technology for applications of contact tracing and information dashboard.
After the reports, Vice President U Myint Swe expressed his appreciation about the works being carried out and gave necessary instructions for effective implementation of the committee’s tasks.
MNA (Translated by Aung Khin)
