Summary:
New Delhi: The Prime Minister had announced at the Video Conference of SAARC Leaders on 15 March 2020 that health professionals of all SAARC member states could hold a video conference to carry forward collaboration in the common fight against Covid19 at the practical level. As implementation of that announcement, a video conference of health professionals representing all SAARC countries at the level of Director General of Health Services (DGHS) was held on 26 March 2020. Likewise, all other SAARC countries shared their own experiences of dealing with the Covid19 challenge in their respective settings. India proposed a shared electronic platform for all SAARC nations to share and exchange information, knowledge, expertise and best practices for jointly combating the coronavirus epidemic. The Indian side proposed that till such time the electronic platform is fully operational, a network of experts representing the Health Services of all SAARC countries may set up on email/whatsapp to enable exchange of all relevant information between the SAARC countries on real time basis..