Republican Anti-COVID Commission agrees on measures for cooperation in tackling the COVID-19 pandemic with the United Nations and International Financial Institutions in Uzbekistan

On behalf of the international organizations, the UN Resident Coordinator in Uzbekistan, Ms. Helena Fraser, conveyed the commitment of the entire UN Country Team and the International Financial Institutions (IFIs), namely World Bank Group, ADB and EBRD, in supporting the national response to the COVID-19 crisis. She also welcomed the strong partnership and spirit of solidarity between the Government of Uzbekistan and the multilateral organizations in tackling the COVID19 outbreak in Uzbekistan.

Ms. Fraser commended the robust national measures adopted to minimize the spread of the virus and to mitigate its socio-economic impact, including on vulnerable populations, through the Government’s Anti-Crisis Fund and the national socio-economic stabilization plan. She also welcomed the cooperation between Ministry of Health and WHO on the national Strategic Preparedness & Response Plan, which is part of the global WHO COVID-19 response plan. Ms. Fraser also commended the leadership of the Ministry of Investment and Foreign Trade in coordinating the Government-UN-IFI procurement task force.

Dr. Lianne Kuppens, WHO Representative, commended the forward-leaning strategy of the Government to minimize the spread of the virus by adopting robust movement and physical distancing measures, in line with WHO recommendations. She re-emphasized the importance of the comprehensive approach, each component being equally important, not only to prevent further transmission but also to contain the outbreak:

•  Actively identify suspect COVID-19 cases;
•  Test suspect cases ;
•  Isolate the COVID-19 infected persons (those with and those without symptoms);
•  Hospitalize and take care of COVID-19 infected cases with mild and severe symptoms (mild cases might be isolated at home and / or in isolation facilities);
•  Contact tracing and put those contacts in quarantine facilities;
•  Physical distancing, adequate personal hygiene and risk communication.

Dr. Kuppens highlighted three points for the attention of the Commission in relation to the health response, drawing on evolving global best practice:

• Importance of ensuring continuity of all essential health programmes and hospital services;
• Need to prioritize and ensure Personal Protective Equipment for all health workers in health facilities, including isolation and quarantine facilities as well as ordinary clinics, to ensure health workers stay healthy;
• Testing strategy for COVID19 needs to be applied wisely:  Test only ‘suspect ‘cases and the contacts of    infected cases.  In case there are not enough test kits, then only people with severe symptoms of COVID should be prioritized for testing.

The UNDP Representative Ms. Matilda Dimovska and World Bank Country Manager Mr. Hideki Mori welcomed the Government’s Anti-Crisis Fund and socio-economic stabilization plan. They highlighted aspects of ongoing and planned cooperation between the Government and the international organizations on socio-economic mitigation and underlined the importance of access to quality data to inform evidence-based policy-making. The World Bank also highlighted forthcoming financing.

The Government side acknowledged the UN and IFIs efforts to reorient current programmes and resources to support the national COVID19 response.

The UN Resident Coordinator outlined the crisis coordination arrangements agreed among the multilateral organizations, and highlighted the associated priority workstreams:

• Health capacity-building (supporting COVID-19 readiness; including surveillance and contact -tracing, infection prevention control, isolation and quarantine facilities, hospital, laboratory and health-workers training and readiness);
• Health procurement (matching national priorities with international financing and international fast-track procurement mechanisms);
• Socio-economic mitigation (including providing assessments, analysis and policy recommendations on employment, social protection, food security, trade & connectivity issues, education, etc) and recovery planning;
• Protection and key populations (sharing evolving global guidance and recommendations on minimizing risk among vulnerable key populations and recommendations on key protection and human rights issues linked to the COVID-19 response);
• Risk communication and public engagement (communicating evolving global guidance on COVID-19 risk communications and using UN channels to amplify national community engagement campaigns).
• Financial tracking of resources offered by the international community to the national COVID-19 response;
• Publication of a Daily Situation Report summarizing the international organizations’ support to the national COVID-19 response.

The Resident Coordinator also confirmed that the UN Country Team and IFIs will cooperate to share assessments, analysis, standards, and policy recommendations with the Government of Uzbekistan, in line with the UN Secretary-General’s recent report “Shared responsibility, global solidarity: Responding to the socio-economic impacts of COVID-19”.

In conclusion, the Deputy Prime Minister welcomed the efforts of the UN Country Team, the IFIs and other international organizations to support the national COVID-19 response, and reconfirmed the Government’s commitment to ensuring a comprehensive approach implementing global best practice and the interest and willingness to cooperate closely in relation to ongoing response, as well as post-recovery planning and strategies.