COVID-19 made us realize importance of resilient and strong public health system: Harsh Vardhan

New Delhi [India], October 8 (ANI): Union Health Minister Harsh Vardhan on Thursday said the COVID-19 has made us realize the importance of a resilient and strong public health system.
Speaking at Ministerial Meeting on Universal Health Coverage, Harsh Vardhan said, "In September 2019, the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) adopted a political declaration on Universal Health Coverage. The political declaration among its many commitments stresses the importance of strong primary health care systems, increasing investments for health and effective public health systems."
For most of this year, the world has been battling a rapidly evolving pandemic that has speared few countries, testing the resilience of health systems to their utmost, he said.
"We must applaud the resolve shown by the community of nations in effectively tackling the pandemic and at the same time working to further the aim of universal health coverage," the Minister said.
He said, "Like several other countries and as a signatory to the Sustainable Development goals, India has been working on making Universal health coverage a reality for her citizens. With this resolve, Ayushman Bharat was launched in India in 2018 comprising two pillars of health and wellness centres, providing comprehensive and primary health care to all and providing secondary and tertiary inpatient health care to 500 million citizens."
"However, the COVID-19 pandemic brought home to us several lessons. It has made us realize the importance of a resilient and strong public health system," the Union Minister said.
He further said, "COVID 19 has also ensured that we now need to focus on accelerating actions related to the integration of public health surveillance and data sharing into primary and secondary health care. This has spurred design reforms such as expand and build and IT-enabled disease surveillance system, build capacity for research on health, invest in the national health ecosystem, strengthening epidemiological intelligence capacity and create system capacity to meet the need for emergency response." (ANI)