ASEAN countries share data, best practices to fight COVID-19
Top Stories | Apr 15, 2020:
Tom Abke
Defense ministers from the 10-member Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) are banding together to fight the COVID-19 pandemic by calling on regional governments and health officials to work more closely together.
COVID-19 was the central issue when the ministers gathered in Hanoi, Vietnam, on February 19, 2020. They recognized the gravity of the health crisis and pledged all the cooperative and institutional tools at their disposal to mitigate the disease within the region and beyond. By the close of their meeting, they had issued six resolutions aimed at “doing our part and staying united to overcome the COVID-19 outbreak for the benefit of the people of ASEAN.”
To counter the virus, they pledged to share information about its spread along with best practices to combat it. They also promised to pool the capabilities of their defense scientists; inform the public accurately and squelch inaccurate information; promote cooperation across sectors throughout the region and beyond; support national health authorities; and to stay united and resolute in their shared undertaking.
The following day, a special meeting of the ASEAN Coordinating Council (ACC) was held in Vientiane, Laos, to plan the association’s collective response to the virus. Members agreed on joint actions of mutual assistance, including sharing information and experience and building capacity in the prevention, detection, research and treatment of COVID-19. Members declared the ACC as the main monitoring body and the ASEAN secretariat as the regional coordination hub to facilitate networking and information exchange.
The following month, economic ministers from ASEAN countries met in Da Nang, Vietnam, for their annual retreat, and once again COVID-19 topped the agenda. The ministers acknowledged the health dangers posed by COVID-19 but emphasized risks to regional economies. In a joint statement, they called for borders to remain open for trade, even if human movements need to be restricted. Supply chain resilience should be maintained during the virus outbreak, they said, along with multilateral economic cooperation to keep businesses in operation.
Two days after the COVID-19 outbreak was labeled a pandemic by the World Health Organization, senior health officials from ASEAN countries held a six-hour videoconference on March 13, 2020, rather than meet in person, to share “scaled-up and intensified” national prevention, preparedness, detection and response measures, according to an ASEAN news release. Participants exchanged information on improved monitoring and containment in public and private hospitals, laboratory diagnosis, and treatment at health care facilities. They also circulated information on travel restrictions and non-pharmaceutical interventions such as social distancing measures.
Senior ASEAN officials met in person and via videoconference with their European Union (EU) counterparts on March 20, 2020, to enhance cooperative efforts to “tackle the pandemic effectively” and mitigate the social and economic impact on their respective regions. (Pictured: Participants in an ASEAN-EU Joint Cooperation Committee meeting in Jakarta, Indonesia, hold their hands in the air, eschewing the customary hand-holding during the COVID-19 pandemic.)
Tom Abke is a FORUM contributor reporting from Singapore.
