Thiruvananthapuram (TIP)- COVID-19 pandemic will not be the last one and therefore, emergency preparedness is an overarching priority that requires building of resilient health systems across the world to protect people in the face of similar crises, India said on Wednesday, January 18,  during the G20 Health Working Group meeting here.

Pointing to the need to respond together each time when such threats to global health emerge, Minister of State for Health and Family Welfare Bharati Pravin Pawar said it was essential to ally with emerging scientific evidence, diversify our capacities and capabilities and strengthen the early warning systems.

She said that emergency preparedness was no longer an initiative in isolation, but rather “an overarching priority” which “requires efforts to build resilient health systems horizontally and vertically across the world”.

“In an increasingly interconnected world we need to ensure that our communities are resilient and have equal opportunities to protect themselves in the face of a crisis. “The principle of equity and equitable support must be non-negotiable in our pursuit for health security,” she stressed in her keynote address at the G20 India Health Working Group meeting.

Union Health Minister Mansukh Mandaviya also tweeted about the meeting.

“My Ministerial Colleagues @DrBharatiPPawarJi & @VMBJP Ji inaugurated the G20 Health Working group meeting. I heartily welcome all the delegates in Kerala, India. India as part of its #G20 Presidency will work towards creating a healthier world & ensuring health equity globally,” he said.

The first Health Working Group meeting under G20 India Presidency is under way presently and will conclude on January 20. India assumed the presidency of the G20 on December 01, 2022.

Pawar said that during the two-day long meeting of the Working Health Group, the aim would be to “realign our politics and policies”. “We must invest collectively and the investment must start today.” The minister noted that the Indian presidency will aim to build on the efforts and proposals laid down by previous Health Working Groups and G20 leaders.

“It will include strengthening our healthcare, prioritising one-health, emergency preparedness, ensuring equitable distribution of life saving vaccines, therapeutics and diagnostics, and utilising digital health as an instrument to aid universal health coverage,” she said.

The G20 countries have to collectively strive to evolve and present the world with a “harmonised blueprint for the fundamental architecture of global health scheme and health emergency management duly avoiding duplication and fragmentation”.               Source: PTI