Indonesian Health Minister Budi Gunadi Sadikin delivers a press statement after chairing the 15th ASEAN Health Ministers’ Meeting in Nusa Dua, Bali, on Saturday. (Photo: ANTARA) Indonesian Health Minister Budi Gunadi Sadikin saidat a press conference following the 15th ASEAN Health Minister’Meeting (AHMM) on May 14 that ASEAN will issue a joint statement on its countries' adoption of health protocol standards.
“This is similar to what we will achieve at theG20," he explained, as cited by Indonesia's Antara news agency.
Digital technology convergence for developing avaccine passport was one of the agendas of the AHMM which discussed the mutual recognition arrangement on COVID-19 health certificates, he said.
Sadikin noted that the COVID-19 pandemic has led tocountries adopting diverse health protocol standards which often complicatematters for international travelers.
The proposed vaccine passport will adopt an overseastravel passport mechanism utilised by each country's immigration authority forascertaining a traveler's identity.
Travel businesses currently need vaccinecertificates from travelers to confirm they are healthy to carry outtravel-related activities.
For this reason, the health sector in the ASEANregion has proposed a digital-based vaccine passport as a single standard thatcan be recognised, acknowledged, and trusted by every country.
Digital technology convergence for vaccine passportdevelopment has so far been accepted by the European Union and is planned to beapplied globally in every country.
Sadikin also said ASEAN health ministers haveapproved the establishment of an ASEAN Centre for Public Health Emergencies andEmerging Diseases (ACPHEED) as a collaborative effort to deal withextraordinary events and future pandemics.
There will be three pillars of ACPHEED, surveillanceor detection, response, and risk management, which are supported by three ASEANrepresentative countries, namely Vietnam, Thailand, and Indonesia.
There will be a collaboration of the three countries,each of whom will build offices in their countries for the three existingpillars, he said, noting that the working principles of ACPHEED will begenerally similar to those of the United States Centres for Disease Control andPrevention (CDC).
According to him, every ASEAN country has the rightto fill the three offices in the spirit of togetherness.
Minister Sadikin, who is also chair of the ASEANHealth Ministers Meeting, called ACPHEED a solution to address the problems ofdiffering health protocols in each ASEAN country./.
The proposed vaccine passport will adopt an overseastravel passport mechanism utilised by each country's immigration authority forascertaining a traveler's identity.
Travel businesses currently need vaccinecertificates from travelers to confirm they are healthy to carry outtravel-related activities.
For this reason, the health sector in the ASEANregion has proposed a digital-based vaccine passport as a single standard thatcan be recognised, acknowledged, and trusted by every country.
Digital technology convergence for vaccine passportdevelopment has so far been accepted by the European Union and is planned to beapplied globally in every country.
Sadikin also said ASEAN health ministers haveapproved the establishment of an ASEAN Centre for Public Health Emergencies andEmerging Diseases (ACPHEED) as a collaborative effort to deal withextraordinary events and future pandemics.
There will be three pillars of ACPHEED, surveillanceor detection, response, and risk management, which are supported by three ASEANrepresentative countries, namely Vietnam, Thailand, and Indonesia.
There will be a collaboration of the three countries,each of whom will build offices in their countries for the three existingpillars, he said, noting that the working principles of ACPHEED will begenerally similar to those of the United States Centres for Disease Control andPrevention (CDC).
According to him, every ASEAN country has the rightto fill the three offices in the spirit of togetherness.
Minister Sadikin, who is also chair of the ASEANHealth Ministers Meeting, called ACPHEED a solution to address the problems ofdiffering health protocols in each ASEAN country./.
VNA
