KOICA Provides Supplies to East Timor for COVID-19 Response... Concerns Over Possible Resurgence

Expansion of Infectious Disease Response Infrastructure through Tripartite MOU between KOICA, East Timor Ministry of Health, and IOM

[Asia Economy Reporter Lim Cheol-young] KOICA (Korea International Cooperation Agency) is providing supplies for efficient infectious disease diagnosis and management in Timor-Leste, including COVID-19 and tuberculosis.

On the 9th, KOICA signed a tripartite Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with the National Institute of Health under the Ministry of Health of Timor-Leste and the International Organization for Migration (IOM) at the National Institute of Health located in Dili, the capital of Timor-Leste, to provide post-support for the tuberculosis diagnosis and management capacity-building project in Timor-Leste.

The MOU signing ceremony was attended by Kim Sik-hyun, KOICA Timor-Leste Office Chief, Endang da Silva, Director of the National Institute of Health, and Wanjai Sithol, Head of Timor-Leste IOM.

The National Institute of Health under the Ministry of Health of Timor-Leste oversees the prevention, response, management, and research of infectious disease spread, including tuberculosis. Recently, it has been solely responsible for diagnosing COVID-19 infections amid the local spread. However, despite the risk of COVID-19 cluster infections, Timor-Leste is facing difficulties due to an inadequate infectious disease response system within the country.

Since the first confirmed case on March 25, Timor-Leste declared the first national emergency on March 27. A total of 24 confirmed cases have been reported, all of whom have fully recovered. Currently, Timor-Leste has closed all air routes and borders to prevent the spread of COVID-19, cutting off contact with the outside world.

However, neighboring Indonesia is struggling with high local infections and mortality rates, raising concerns about a serious resurgence if the national emergency is lifted at the end of June and external inflows occur through borders.

Accordingly, KOICA has decided to participate in a project to prevent the spread of infectious diseases through rapid COVID-19 diagnosis in Timor-Leste and to expand the functions of the National Institute of Health. The National Institute of Health, which KOICA supported with $2.1 million from 2013 to 2016, operates the country's top tuberculosis research institute. KOICA plans to provide about 30 types of supplies worth approximately $210,000 by the end of this year, including equipment, reagents, and diagnostic tools necessary for COVID-19 diagnosis. Considering the difficulties in international logistics due to movement restrictions (lockdowns) caused by the COVID-19 spread, procurement will be entrusted to the international organization (IOM) with logistics expertise.

KOICA expects this support to contribute to expanding the poor infectious disease research infrastructure by actively utilizing local assets in Timor-Leste. Furthermore, it is anticipated to help ▲ prevent the spread and secondary infections of COVID-19 ▲ enable early diagnosis, isolation, and treatment response to COVID-19 ▲ strengthen the National Institute of Health’s capabilities in infectious disease information collection, diagnosis, and response ▲ and provide rapid and accurate information to the entire population of Timor-Leste.

Kim Sik-hyun, KOICA Timor-Leste Office Chief, said, “Thanks to the Timor-Leste government's swift and efficient policies, the COVID-19 crisis has been well controlled so far. However, with the national emergency ending at the end of June, we hope this support will help prepare and block greater damage from a resurgence caused by infections entering from outside, and above all, to establish the minimum medical environment, including sufficient diagnostic capacity, necessary to live a new normal of coexisting with COVID-19.”

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.