His Excellency the Minister of Health, Eng. Fahad Al-Jalajel, has lauded the Kingdom’s efforts to promote the global public health. This came during his speech at the meetings of the 75th session of the World Health Assembly, held in Geneva from 22nd to 23rd of May, and to which he headed the Kingdom’s delegation.
His Excellency pointed out that the Kingdom, during its leadership of G20, was among the first countries to convene extraordinary summit for combining efforts to control the pandemic; which resulted in unprecedented global cooperation. “The Kingdom contributed to the launch of an initiative for speeding up the availability of COVID-19 Tools (ACT) Accelerator and COVAX Facility. Through this initiative and with direct support to developing countries, the Kingdom has offered a total support of about US$ 770 million,” stated Al-Jalajel, emphasizing the pioneering role that the Kingdom played at the regional and global levels.
On the other hand, Al-Jalajel has congratulated Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, on his re-election as WHO Director General for a second five-year term, and for the renewal of the international community’s confidence in his leadership of the most important and leading organization concerned with public health in the world.
On the sidelines of the meetings, the Minister of Health has held several side meetings, during which he separately met with the Ministers of Health of Indonesia, Uzbekistan, Djibouti, Cuba, Maldives, Poland, Malaysia, and India. These meetings discussed a number of issues of common interest and ways to enhance health cooperation between both sides.
It is worth mentioning that this 75th session has been held for the first time in attendance since the beginning of COVID-19 pandemic, under the title «Health for Peace, and Peace for Health». During the session, representatives of member states, partner agencies, civil society representatives, and WHO experts discussed the present and future of prominent global health issues.