This is the reality that the whole world is struggling to tackle the cruel attack of COVID-19. Since March 2020 Bangladesh has started to report in regular basis about the spread of the pandemic. Until July over two hundred thousand people has been infected. The infection rate in South and South-East Asia is also high. Among this grey picture, there are some bright examples who are managing this pandemic successfully and made them as the example of good practice in the world. They are Kerala (India), Thailand and Vietnam. Being a citizens` platform Bangladesh Health Watch (BHW) organized a webinar with the aim to improve our learnings and to inspire our policymakers to implement these good practices to manage this pandemic more effectively. The event was organized on 20 July 2020 and influential person of different sector were present at the event. Among them the Divisional Advisors on COVID-19, renowned health experts, Civil Society leaders, academics, NGO leaders, journalists, donors representatives were present. The webinar was moderated by Dr. Mushtaque Chowdhury, Convener BHW and the panelists were:
Presentation: Dr. K. R. Thankappan: In the presentation of Kerala Dr. Thankappan said, though Kerala was very vulnerable to COVID due to prevalence of many co-morbidity factors like Elderly proportion 12.6% Vs 8.6% in India, type 2 Diabetes 19.2% Vs 7.7% in India, hypertension 30% Vs 25% in India, highest prevalence of Asthma in South India, one of the highest incidence of cancers and population density but managed the pandemic successfully due to leadership and commitment. First case of COVID-19 was reported in Kerala on January 30, 2020 and second half of January Kerala developed guidelines for
testing, isolating, contact tracing and managing COVID-19 cases which helped to avoid spread from these initial cases. Now they only have 267 cases per million (total cases 8990 till 14 July 2020) where as in India it is 699 and the case fatality rate is only 0.38 in Kerala (number of total deaths 34) Vs 2.60 in all over the India. Some of the major factors of their success are, rigorous testing, contact tracing, and quarantine, Enhancing health infrastructure on a war footing, enforcement of Kerala Epidemic Disease control act, community kitchens lead by local government, expansion of internet bandwidth and connectivity, political commitment, strong decentralized Governments and media support.
Dr. Chawetsan Namwat: While sharing the Thailand experience Dr. Namwat said, the key to their success are, early detection and containment, strong effort on contact tracing and isolation, engagement of Public Health and Medical experts, evaluate the situation and modify the risk criteria for patient under investigation (PUI) timely, risk communication, field epidemiology training, enforce lockdown even curfew (11pm to 4 am), 14 days hotel quarantine for whom returned from abroad, balancing the resource use and successful engagement of private sector. Till 17 July they tested total 685, 316 among which 387,715 is in government facility and 297,601 is in private. The COVID positive case is only 3249 with 58 deaths recorded in Thailand.
Dr. Tran Mai Oanh: One of the successful country in the world in terms of COVID management is Vietnam and telling the factors behind the success Dr. Mai Oanh said, Commitment and determination of the country leaders, engagement of the entire political system and multi-stakeholders, control points of entry, testing and contact tracing, four-tier classification, timely and transparent communication, focus on ethnic minority and remote areas, and focus on people with co-morbidities. And as a result till 19 July the positive case in Vietnam is only 382 with no death recorded. In reply to a question Dr. Mai said, Vietnam never hide any information regarding contract tracing, confirm case and probable risk areas. The lessons Vietnam learned that, commitment and determination of the country leaders, engagement of the entire political system and multi-stakeholders and prioritization of vulnerable groups are essential to manage the pandemic successfully.
Dr. Thankappan: NGOs have very good network and in management and operation of community kitchen they have extended their support to the Panchayat. The overall situation and the development indicators of Kerala are different from the other parts of India. Like education Kerala has the similarity with the European countries or Sri Lankan. So education is one of the factor which help to aware the people effectively. Other than education, the leadership is also played an important role in Kerala. Citizens are fined 500 Indian Rupee and even been arrested as per the pandemic law if they not wear musk in public places.
Dr. Chawetsan Namwat: Private sector is contributing 40% of total health care sector in Thailand but at the time of peak no one wanted to join but government announced that the health insurance package like the government institutions will be included within the private sector. Then they involved with the initiatives. To ensure the quality of private laboratories government ensured regular audit of their facilities. Government mobilized and motivated the youths to come forward to work against the virus.
Dr. Tran Mai Oanh: Vietnam never hide any information regarding contract tracing, confirm case and probable risk areas. Each day at 6 am people received the updated information on COVID in their mobile phone.
In Vietnam there is no many private hospitals but the private pharmacies were linked with the government information system. Whenever they sold any medicine related to flue they informed to the government and was recorded accordingly.
The moderator sum-up the session and said, the key factors to tackle COVID pandemic successfully in Kerala of India, Vietnam and Thailand are early initiatives, good surveillance, huge engagement of community and local government, effective coordination, strong political commitment and engagement of Public Health expert in policy making. Their previous experience to handle pandemic like NIPHA virus in Kerala, SURS in Vietnam and Thailand is also helped them to do effective planning this time.
Dr. Mushtaque said, Though Bangladesh did a lot in COVID management but we are ready to learn from the success of other countries. The stories will inspire us to take some effective measures to manage COVID pandemic more successfully in Bangladesh.
Finally, the moderator concluded the session by giving thanks to all the panelists and guests.
Citizen's Voice