H.E. Nebil DABUR, Director General of SESRIC, addressed the Extraordinary Meeting of the OIC Steering Committee on Health on COVID-19 Pandemic
Date: 09 April 2020
Venue: Jeddah - Saudi Arabia

The extraordinary meeting of the OIC Steering Committee on Health (SCH) on the novel Coronavirus was held on 9 April 2020. The meeting was organized via video conference by the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) and chaired by H.E. Abdul-Rahman Bin Mohamed Al-Owais, Minister of Health and Prevention of the United Arab Emirates (UAE), Chair of the Seventh Islamic Conference of Health Ministers (ICHM). The meeting was attended by the Ministers of Health, members of the OIC-SCH, along with representatives of OIC institutions and a number of international organizations.

During the emergency meeting, the Ministers of Health made statements and interventions regarding the challenges faced in their fight against COVID-19 and reviewed their level of preparedness in addressing the pandemic. They also highlighted the need to strengthen cooperation and efforts towards enhancing prevention, precautionary actions and emergency interventions to prevent the spread of the pandemic. In addition, they appreciated the tireless efforts of all frontline health professionals and others who are providing essential services to the people in these difficult times.

H.E. Mr. Nebil Dabur, Director General of SESRIC, addressed the meeting and briefed the members about SESRIC’s efforts in answering the needs of OIC Member States during the COVID-19 outbreak. In this regard, he stated that SESRIC developed and launched the COVID-19 Pandemic Database for OIC Member Countries that provides statistics and visualized data on the spread of the novel COVID-19 pandemic in OIC Member States. The Database hosts daily basis updated data concerning COVID-19 related cases, case fatalities, and recovered patients in the OIC Countries since 22 January 2020. In addition, the Director General stressed that SESRIC is working on a special report to provide a detailed analysis of socio-economic impacts of the COVID-19 in OIC Member States by looking into some major indicators concerning tourism, trade, industry, labour market, health, food security, education and poverty. Furthermore, he pointed out that the Centre is currently undertaking the necessary preparations to offer online the training courses and workshops to be conducted within the framework of SESRIC Capacity Building Programmes.