KINGSTON, Jamaica— Minister of Health and Wellness, Dr Christopher Tufton, says that having a framework in place to guide decision-making and establishing partnerships are some of the critical measures that enabled Jamaica to manage the risks associated with the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic.

Tufton was addressing a panel discussion titled ‘Enhancing Resilient Infrastructure’ during the just concluded Seventh Regional Platform for Disaster Risk Reduction in the Americas and the Caribbean, which was held virtually from the Jamaica Conference Centre, downtown Kingston.                        

Speaking about some of the most valuable lessons learned from COVID-19, he noted that having the framework of the Disaster Risk Management Plan in place was particularly useful in the initial stages of the pandemic and is a recommendation that he would make for other countries to deal with situations of disaster.

“When COVID started to show its head back in November/December two years ago, we were able to begin to look at that plan and contextualise the plan, which gave us a head start in taking some early decisions,” he noted.                      

“So, whether it is a hurricane or drought, or in this instance, a pandemic of the likes of COVID-19, you can, in a sense, anticipate, given where you are in the world and what the trends are,” he added.  

He cautioned that, “if you don’t have a plan in place that you can contextualise and work towards, then a country would have to start from scratch, which would put it in a major vulnerable position”.                                                                                                                     

Another important lesson, the Health and Wellness Minister pointed to, was the value of partnerships.

“You cannot survive in the context of a disaster, particularly a regional disaster, indeed a national disaster or a global disaster without coming together,” Dr Tufton argued.                                   

He cited, among other things, the 200 healthcare workers provided by Cuba to bolster local capacity, and the critical support and advice received from the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO) and the World Health Organization.

“That partnership, to my mind, needs to be strengthened coming out of this COVID experience as part of building resilience… It’s so important for us to help the larger developed, more industrialised countries to recognise that we have to partner, because you can’t have half of the world being safe and the other half not being safe,” Dr Tufton said.                                                                                      

He noted that Jamaica, like other small island states, faces the challenge of limited capacity and having to rely on larger, more industrialised, developed countries to respond to some of the critical needs, for example, access to vaccines.

He attributed the emergence of variant strains of the virus to the “great inequity in the distribution of vaccines where some countries stockpile multiple times [that would be needed for] their population”.

Tufton further pointed out that many countries do not have access to vaccines or when they receive them the expiration dates are so close “that it becomes difficult for the local capacity to administer those vaccines”.

He said that a closer look needs to be taken at global coordination and PAHO, as the hemispheric body, has some way to go in terms of looking at those lessons and benefiting from them.

He insisted that the larger countries should also try to provide leadership in that regard.

Minister Tufton said that the country must learn from the experience, in terms of managing its risks and institutionalising the response for the future “to avoid some of the pitfalls of disasters”.

“Public health should be stronger for the COVID experience. It means looking at how we build capacity, looking at how we build infrastructure, how we build testing capacity for example, taking a look at how we bring in the private sector as part of any plan, because the public sector alone cannot do it.

“[We must also look at] how we integrate the risk management function in a way that truly gives us greater resilience to deal with a response in an efficient and timely manner,” the Health and Wellness Minister said.                                                                     

This, the minister said, can only be done through partnerships, including private sector, bilateral and multilateral arrangements, as well as in-country where a plan that is in place can be tweaked and adjusted along the way.