WHO praises Pakistan's handling of coronavirus pandemic

Islamabad - WHO mission has been visiting Pakistan this week to review the lessons learned from the south Asian country's response to Covid-19.

The World Health Organization (WHO) mission on Friday appreciated the response of Pakistan’s federal and provincial governments for effectively containing COVID-19 pandemic, the Associated Press of Pakistan (APP) reported.

The WHO mission from the Regional Office for the Eastern Mediterranean (EMRO) region were presenting their findings at a debriefing session chaired by the Special Assistant to the Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan on National Health Services Dr Faisal Sultan.

The WHO mission comprises of a team of WHO experts who are visiting Pakistan from October 14 to 24.

The objectives of the mission were to review lessons learned from Pakistan’s Covid-19 response to work with national and provincial experts in health.

The main area of review was surveillance, point of entry, risk communication and community engagement, and continuity essential health services.

Dr Palitha Mahipala, head of mission, WHO was also present in the meeting.

Dr Sultan said he appreciated the efforts of the WHO mission and WHO Country Office in identifying the gaps and recommendations in the suggested areas of the International Health Regulations 2005.

He acknowledged that by strengthening the gaps and identified areas, we can enable the health system to deal with any kind of infectious disease emergency such as Covid-19.

• Pakistan