The Chairman of the State Administration Council Commander-in-Chief of Defence Services Senior General Min Aung Hlaing delivered a speech at the 2nd coordination meeting on COVID-19 prevention, control and treatment held in Nay Pyi Taw yesterday.
Also present were Vice-Chairman of the SAC Deputy Commander-in-Chief of Defence Services Commander-in-Chief (Army) Vice-Senior General Soe Win, SAC member General Mya Tun Oo, Lt-Gen Soe Htut, Secretary Lt-Gen Aung Lin Dwe, Joint Secretary Lt-Gen Ye Win Oo, Union Ministers U Wunna Maung Lwin, U Win Shein, U Ko Ko Hlaing, Dr Pwint San, Dr Thet Khaing Win, Chief of the General Staff (Army, Navy and Air) General Maung Maung Aye, senior military officers of the Office of the Commander-in-Chief (Army), and the officials of health and sports ministry.
In his address, the Senior General said there have been 192,213 patients to date in the country counting for 0.35 per cent of the population. It ranks 5th among the ASEAN countries.
The infection rate in neighbouring countries is on the rise and the country needs an accurate infection rate to control the disease. The people should go to respective health departments if they are suspected of suffering from some symptoms without taking some treatment at home.
He also highlighted the plans to transfer to the hospitals if the regional health officials conducted health checks and recommended to do so, effective treatment of regional health departments, proper communications among people, duties of patients to isolate at the certain places, the needs to have proper health awareness and efforts of respective committees to control the disease with true and accurate infection rate.
Then, the Senior General said, “Most of the people criticize regarding the Oxygen in recent days. Actually, we have enough Oxygen. The anxiety of people rise and they buy it. Some try to do negative activities while gaining political profits. They buy the Oxygen cylinder and spread the rumour that the country does not have Oxygen anymore. The Oxygen plant in PyinOoLwin was out of order last two days. When I asked the officials, they said the plant was running as normal until 12 noon. I told them to check the factory. According to the final information I receive, the plant is running properly. It means they (unscrupulous persons) spread the rumour to threaten the people. They seem to cash in on an opportunity. They do various destructive actions. What I want to tell the public is that they should be cautious of such cases. Then, regarding the Oxygen factory, a well-wisher contacted us to transfer an Oxygen plant to us after our discussion held last week (Friday). I accepted their proposal. Now, we start doing the operation. It will be completed in one month. We try hard to complete all processes including the production sector. Currently, the foundation process is completed. However, the next step will take about two weeks. It has a heavyweight and it will take one month to run after all the processes are completed. It can produce 1,440 Oxygen cylinders per day. We carry out that project in Yangon. The people do not need to worry about it so much and should not spread the rumour. I want to call on the people to cooperate with us. The main thing is that they should not make political profits in this case. It is just a social issue; healthcare and the life of a person. It is not a political but a health issue; the life of a person. They should not do such destructive actions in this case. If they do so, it is such a silly doing.
He then talked about the 2 million COVID-19 vaccines to be received soon donated by China, the assistance of China in conducting COVID-19 preventive activities especially in Shan State (northern) and Kachin State, the need to follow the COVID-19 health rules in the country, and avoid going outside unnecessarily.
The Senior General also said the government permitted the production sectors to resume the operation and they need to follow the health rules without fail. The preventive measures are being carried out in the agriculture sector. Tatmadaw also makes preparations at 1,278 places to provide medical services to 38,972 patients and at 1,453 locations for 71,475 civilians. It is also necessary to open “Community COVID Positive Centre” respectively in order to benefit the people, he urged.
Public participation is needed in making preparations with the relevant organizations to control the COVID-19 pandemic to a certain extent. The COVID-19 disease seems to be an incurable infection and it will need a vaccine and so the Ministry of Health and Sports cooperate with the Tatmadaw Medical Research group to produce the vaccine in the country. The COVID-19 protection activity is national duties and the private sectors should cooperate with the government. If so, it will benefit the country a lot, the Senior General concluded. — MNA
