Sri Lanka prioritizes elderly and people with chronic diseases for COVID test and vaccine
Sri Lanka prioritizes people age 60 and over and people with chronic diseases for receiving PCR and Rapid Antigen Tests as well as the vaccination. This is because they have a higher risk of death if they are not vaccinated. Thus, they...
Brunei announces vaccination for pregnant women to begin Monday (Aug 16)
Brunei has released a vaccination programme for pregnant women and breastfeeding mothers due to their higher risks if contract COVID-19. This programme is going to start from August 16, aiming to protect pregnant women and breastfeeding mothers, including...
Vaccine coverage reach to 35 percent in Brunei Darussalam
Brunei Darussalam has reach 34.2 percent of total population or 201,441 people as of August 11, 2021. The vaccinated persons can be divided into those who received first dose and second dose, 155,001 and 46,440, respectively. The highest...
Singapore expands vaccination and test to employees in malls and supermarkets
Singapore expands COVID-19 vaccination or antigen rapid test twice a week to be required workers in shopping malls, supermarkets, taxi, and private drivers, starting from October 1. To support the vaccination, the number of public health...
Malaysia allocates RM10.3m for special assistance of Covid-19 death management
Malaysia provides RM10.3m for the special assistance of Covid-19 death management in order to support the next-of-kin of those who died due to coronavirus. The one-off special assistance of RM5,000 is allocated for the next-of-kin....
Thai cabinet approves B14.5 bn for coronavirus frontliners
Thai Cabinet approves an additional 14.5 billion baht, aiming to support the medical workers under the Covid-19 pandemic. This budget will be divided into two parts: approximately 12.7 billion baht will be provided to medical workers...
New article on determinants of health care utilisation: the case of Timor-Leste
Timor-Leste is a country in Southeast Asia, which adopts a tax-based health system with free health care at the point of service. However, Timor-Leste has not yet achieved elimination of inequalities in the utilisation of health services. This...
New article on reforming premium amount in the Indonesian National Health Insurance System
Indonesia has developed the National Health Insurance System (NHIS), aiming to achieve the Universal Health Coverage. However, there was deficit problem during 2014 to 2019. The trend is likely to increase. This study aims to...
Multi-Regional Landscape Study and Analysis of Select West African Countries available
New West Africa regional document available: Recognizing that a healthy population promotes economic development, resilience, and strength, many governments have started pursuing a universal health coverage (UHC) agenda. The international community, national...
Document on developing and implementing health financing strategies available here
Low- and middle-income countries are developing health financing strategies to map out how they will pay for universal health coverage. This brief discusses three activities that are valuable for producing sound strategies: convening multi-sectoral committees to...
Document on advocacy for UHC available on the digital platform
Despite strong global commitment to achieve universal health coverage (UHC), inconsistent understanding and communication about UHC hinders progress. Experience suggests that advocating for and communicating about UHC requires deliberate, tailored, context-specific...
Why Investors Should be Optimistic About Vietnam’s Healthcare Industry
https://www.vietnam-briefing.com/news/why-investors-should-be-optistimic-vietnams-healthcare-industry.html/
South Africa COVID-19 vaccine producer receives €600 million financial support
One of the potential approaches to increasing vaccine equity as part of the fight against the COVID-19 pandemic, is reducing Africa's reliance on global vaccine supply chains. This can be enhanced by transferring competencies for vaccine production from upper...
Namibia gets US$270.83 million to address the COVID-19 pandemic
The government of Namibia received approximately US$270.83 million under the Rapid Financing Instrument to help the country address urgent balance of payments and fiscal financing needs stemming from the negative impact of the COVID-19 pandemic. Namibia has been...
South Africa debates Bill to provide Universal Health Care
South Africa's parliament debates the National Health Insurance bill, a plan for universal health care that proponents said will bring justice and equality to the health care system in this deeply unequal country. Some critics argue that the plan is too ambitious,...