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How Gavi, UNICEF and WHO supported Timor-Leste’s successful COVID-19 response strategy

Timor Leste has kept COVID-19 infections to a minimum, and thanks to effective collaboration has managed to successfully reverse the initial declines seen in immunisation coverage and health service delivery.

21 October 2020
2 min read
by Elinore Court
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<article> <h1> <span>How Gavi, UNICEF and WHO supported Timor-Leste’s successful COVID-19 response strategy</span> </h1> <div><p>Timor Leste has kept COVID-19 infections to a minimum, and thanks to effective collaboration has managed to successfully reverse the initial declines seen in immunisation coverage and health service delivery.</p> </div> <ul> <li> <b>21 October 2020</b> </li> <li> <b class="me-2">by</b> <span> <a href="https://www.gavi.org/vaccineswork/authors/elinore-court" hreflang="en">Elinore Court</a> </span> </li> </ul> <figure> <img src="https://www.gavi.org/sites/default/files/vaccineswork/2020/Thumbnail/IMG_7095_h2.jpg" width="1440" height="960" alt="How Gavi, UNICEF and WHO supported Timor-Leste’s successful COVID-19 response strategy" loading="lazy"> <figcaption>How Gavi, UNICEF and WHO supported Timor-Leste’s successful COVID-19 response strategy</figcaption> </figure> <div> <div> <span data-type="column" data-id="80801"></span> <div> <div> <div> <div> <p>The <a href="https://www.gavi.org/covid19" title="Responding to COVID-19">COVID-19</a> pandemic has spared no region or country in the world. Countries with few or no cases have also experienced certain levels of disruption to essential health services, including immunisation. Disruptions, even for brief periods, increase the likelihood of outbreaks of vaccine-preventable diseases such as measles, putting lives at risk.</p> <blockquote> <h2>Early action by the Government of Timor-Leste and development partners enabled the numbers of confirmed COVID-19 cases to stand at 29.</h2> </blockquote> <p>In <a href="https://www.gavi.org/programmes-impact/country-hub/south-east-asia/timor-leste" title="Timor Leste">Timor-Leste</a>, high rates of poverty and malnutrition, basic living conditions and limited access to clean water, sanitation and health facilities increase the risk of vaccine-preventable disease outbreaks. These factors also increase the country’s vulnerability to COVID-19. </p> <p>However, early action by the Government of Timor-Leste and development partners has meant the number of confirmed cases of COVID-19 stands at 29. There has been no community transmission and no deaths. However, essential services such as immunisation were disrupted at the onset of the pandemic. UNICEF, Gavi and the WHO focused on a partnership with the government to ensure these services could recover and serve to protect children and families while they were at their most vulnerable. </p> <p>“The COVID-19 pandemic has shown us how fragile the delivery and maintenance of essential health services, such as immunisation, can be during a crisis,” says Valérie Taton, UNICEF Representative in Timor-Leste. “Children should never have to be afflicted by vaccine-preventable diseases. It is, therefore, vital to continue to jointly support the Government of Timor-Leste to ensure all children receive vaccines as per the national immunisation schedule to prevent any secondary outbreaks of infectious diseases.”</p> <p>Systematic efforts by the Timor-Leste Expanded Programme on Immunization (EPI) through targeted activities such as supportive supervision visits, rapid convenience assessments, school-based campaigns, house-to-house sweeping and outreach immunisation sessions have been successfully employed to ensure that any declines in immunisation coverage due to COVID-19 have been reversed. In some areas, this recovery has even exceeded previous coverage.</p> <p>“The gains made in the area of immunisation after the initial and inevitable setback are reassuring and a reminder that partnerships and solidarity are key to achieving these goals,” says Dr Rajesh Pandav, WHO Representative to Timor-Leste. “The financial support from Gavi and the collaboration between UNICEF and WHO is a shining example of what working together can achieve.”</p> </div> </div> </div> </div> <span data-type="column" data-id="80811"></span> </div> <div> <div> <h2>Photo gallery</h2> <div> <ul><li> <img src="/sites/default/files/vaccineswork/2020/Thumbnail/BS1_6973_h2.jpg" width="1440" height="960" alt="Mothers and their children make their way to receive vaccinations against measles and rubella in Ermera Municipality. ©UNICEF Timor-Leste/Soares." loading="lazy"> </li><li> <img src="/sites/default/files/vaccineswork/2020/Thumbnail/IMG_7571_h2.jpg" width="1440" height="960" alt="A baby receives the polio vaccine in Baucau Municipality. © UNICEF Timor-Leste/Soares." loading="lazy"> </li><li> <img src="/sites/default/files/vaccineswork/2020/Thumbnail/BS1_6705_h2.jpg" width="1440" height="960" alt="A child receives the polio vaccine in Dili, the capital of Timor-Leste. ©UNICEF Timor-Leste/Soares." loading="lazy"> </li><li> <img src="/sites/default/files/vaccineswork/2020/Thumbnail/BS1_8210_h2.jpg" width="1440" height="960" alt="The vaccination team from the Baucau health centre navigates difficult terrain to conduct outreach sessions in Fataliri aldeia, part of Soba village in Laga sub-district. The area is only accessible on foot. ©UNICEF Timor-Leste/Soares" loading="lazy"> </li><li> <img src="/sites/default/files/vaccineswork/2020/Thumbnail/BS1_6778_h2.jpg" width="1440" height="960" alt="A child receives the polio vaccine in Dili, the capital of Timor-Leste. ©UNICEF Timor-Leste/Soares." loading="lazy"> </li><li> <img src="https://www.gavi.org/sites/default/files/vaccineswork/2020/Thumbnail/IMG_6331_h2.jpg" width="1440" height="960" alt="A sign that urges parents to bring their children who are under five years of age to be vaccinated against measles and rubella is erected in rural Timor-Leste in response to a measles outbreak. The immunisations were conducted by the Ministry of Health, UNICEF and the WHO with support from Gavi. © UNICEF Timor-Leste/Soares." loading="lazy"> </li><li> <img src="/sites/default/files/vaccineswork/2020/Thumbnail/IMG_7095_h2.jpg" width="1440" height="960" alt="Health workers, many of them volunteers, attend every household in all 13 of Timor-Leste’s municipalities to tell families about the vaccination services available in the country. They can often face numerous access challenges. © UNICEF Timor-Leste/Soares." loading="lazy"> </li><li> <img src="/sites/default/files/vaccineswork/2020/Thumbnail/IMG_6573_h2.jpg" width="1440" height="960" alt="Young boy and a health worker are all smiles during a vaccination drive in Ermera Municipality. © UNICEF Timor-Leste/Soares." loading="lazy"> </li><li> <img src="/sites/default/files/vaccineswork/2020/Thumbnail/IMG_0522_h2.jpg" width="1440" height="960" alt="A health worker administers a vaccine to a baby as his mother watches on at the Comoro Community Health Centre in Dili. © UNICEF Timor-Leste/Galvin" loading="lazy"> </li><li> <img src="/sites/default/files/vaccineswork/2020/Thumbnail/IMG_0535_h2.jpg" width="1440" height="960" alt="A mother waits for her child to be vaccinated at the Comoro Community Health Centre in Dili. © UNICEF Timor-Leste/Galvin" loading="lazy"> </li><li> <img src="/sites/default/files/vaccineswork/2020/Thumbnail/IMG_7781_h2.jpg" width="1440" height="960" alt="A baby, held tightly by his mother, is vaccinated against measles and rubella in Viqueque Municipality. © UNICEF Timor-Leste/Soares." loading="lazy"> </li><li> <img src="/sites/default/files/vaccineswork/2020/Thumbnail/IMG_7878_h2.jpg" width="1440" height="960" alt="The immunisation team checks a family’s vaccination records during an outreach session in Uaimori Tula village, Viqueque Municipality. © UNICEF Timor-Leste/Soares." loading="lazy"> </li></ul> </div> <div> <span class="btn js-btn -white">Load more</span> </div> </div> </div> </div> <p> <a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://www.gavi.org/vaccineswork/how-gavi-unicef-and-who-supported-timor-lestes-successful-covid-19-response">Original article</a> </p><p>This article was originally published on <a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://www.gavi.org/vaccineswork">VaccinesWork</a> </p><script>(function(w,d,s,l,i){w[l]=w[l]||[];w[l].push({'gtm.start': new Date().getTime(),event:'gtm.js'});var f=d.getElementsByTagName(s)[0], j=d.createElement(s),dl=l!='dataLayer'?'&l='+l:'';j.async=true;j.src= 'https://www.googletagmanager.com/gtm.js?id='+i+dl;f.parentNode.insertBefore(j,f); })(window,document,'script','dataLayer','GTM-M7H54VD');</script><noscript><iframe src="https://www.googletagmanager.com/ns.html?id=GTM-M7H54VD" height="0" width="0" style="display:none;visibility:hidden"></iframe></noscript></article>

The COVID-19 pandemic has spared no region or country in the world. Countries with few or no cases have also experienced certain levels of disruption to essential health services, including immunisation. Disruptions, even for brief periods, increase the likelihood of outbreaks of vaccine-preventable diseases such as measles, putting lives at risk.

Early action by the Government of Timor-Leste and development partners enabled the numbers of confirmed COVID-19 cases to stand at 29.

In Timor-Leste, high rates of poverty and malnutrition, basic living conditions and limited access to clean water, sanitation and health facilities increase the risk of vaccine-preventable disease outbreaks. These factors also increase the country’s vulnerability to COVID-19.

However, early action by the Government of Timor-Leste and development partners has meant the number of confirmed cases of COVID-19 stands at 29. There has been no community transmission and no deaths. However, essential services such as immunisation were disrupted at the onset of the pandemic. UNICEF, Gavi and the WHO focused on a partnership with the government to ensure these services could recover and serve to protect children and families while they were at their most vulnerable.

“The COVID-19 pandemic has shown us how fragile the delivery and maintenance of essential health services, such as immunisation, can be during a crisis,” says Valérie Taton, UNICEF Representative in Timor-Leste. “Children should never have to be afflicted by vaccine-preventable diseases. It is, therefore, vital to continue to jointly support the Government of Timor-Leste to ensure all children receive vaccines as per the national immunisation schedule to prevent any secondary outbreaks of infectious diseases.”

Systematic efforts by the Timor-Leste Expanded Programme on Immunization (EPI) through targeted activities such as supportive supervision visits, rapid convenience assessments, school-based campaigns, house-to-house sweeping and outreach immunisation sessions have been successfully employed to ensure that any declines in immunisation coverage due to COVID-19 have been reversed. In some areas, this recovery has even exceeded previous coverage.

“The gains made in the area of immunisation after the initial and inevitable setback are reassuring and a reminder that partnerships and solidarity are key to achieving these goals,” says Dr Rajesh Pandav, WHO Representative to Timor-Leste. “The financial support from Gavi and the collaboration between UNICEF and WHO is a shining example of what working together can achieve.”