Commonwealth Health Ministers Meeting (CHMM) has commenced focused on discussing lessons learned from the COVID-19 pandemic and recovery efforts.
The meeting is held virtually under the theme, The Road to COVID-19 Recovery: Lessons Learnt for Building Health System Resilience to advance UHC and Global Health Security in the Commonwealth and will provide a forum for health leaders to assess the current health situation in the Commonwealth and discuss key resolutions and areas of action on public health issues as the world recovers from the negative impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic.
The Maldivian delegation in the meeting is led by Minister of State for Health Dr. Shah Abdulla Mahir. In his address, Dr. Mahir spoke on the hard work of the Maldives in overcoming the COVID-19 pandemic and the important measures that need to be taken to overcome such a pandemic. He also highlighted the negative impact of COVID-19 on the economies of small and medium-sized countries and highlighted the importance of working hard to overcome and prevent such disasters in the coming days.
This ministerial meeting will also build on existing commitments from the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (CHOGM) in 2018 and the CHMM meeting in May 2021, including advancing the Universal Health Coverage (UHC) goals toward global health security, addressing non-communicable diseases, cervical cancer, malaria and neglected tropical diseases (NTDs), as well as COVID-19 recovery and resilience.
The meeting is being chaired this year by Jamaica's Minister of Health and Wellness Dr. Christopher Tufton and will include a keynote address from Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, the Director-General of the World Health Organisation (WHO).