Hotline 118 will be expanded to provide inclusive assistance to the population on COVID-19, vaccinat

On December 2, within the framework of cooperation between the Ministry of Health of the Kyrgyz Republic, the Ministry of Emergency Situations of the Kyrgyz Republic, the Korean International Cooperation Agency (KOICA), the Government of the Republic of Korea and the United Nations Development Program (UNDP), a solemn ceremony of signing a new concept of the hotline 118 within the framework of the project "Support for Response on COVID-19 using the 118 data-driven hotline. " The ceremony was attended by Deputy Minister of Health of the Kyrgyz Republic Uluk-Bek Bekturganov, Deputy Minister of Emergency Situations of the Kyrgyz Republic Urmat Shamyrkanov, UNDP Resident Representative in the Kyrgyz Republic Louise Chamberlain, Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of the Republic of Korea to the Kyrgyz Republic Lee Wonjae, Director of the Korea International Cooperation Agency KOICA Lee Jongsu.

This project aims to redesign and integrate an efficient COVID-19 Response Hotline 118 service with the existing infrastructure of the 112 Public Hotline. Through this new mechanism, aligned with the broader concept of the Ministry of Health's hotline, this tool is an integral part of the public health package provided to the population to ensure that lives and livelihoods are protected during an emergency.

During the ceremony, Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of the Republic of Korea to the Kyrgyz Republic Lee Wonjae noted that since the beginning of the pandemic, the Korean government has increased official development assistance to provide humanitarian assistance to partner countries in Central Asia: “Despite the significant progress made over the past two years of the pandemic, the new Omicron coronavirus strain is raising concerns around the world, raising concern that the government must be prepared to take decisive action to minimize negative socioeconomic impacts and support those who suffers most of all".

“We must continue to work closely together to effectively respond. I would like to reaffirm UNDP's commitment to support the Kyrgyz Republic in its efforts to combat the pandemic in all its aspects for a more effective recovery. It is my sincere hope that maintaining, expanding and improving the functionality of the 118 Hotline is one of many successful collaborative efforts to advance public health and digitalization, ”said UNDP Resident Representative Louise Chamberlain.

The project is based on the achievement of the following goals:
1. Improved access by the general public to high quality information on COVID-19-related issues.
2. Support national partners in collecting and analyzing data to better predict public health interventions.
3. Improved public access to information on COVID-19 vaccination.

At the ceremony, Uluk-Bek Bekturganov, Deputy Minister of Health of the Kyrgyz Republic, stressed: “We need to integrate hot lines into one to combat the COVID-19 crisis. The ministry will make every effort to make the hotline accessible to the population and fight disinformation. "

In turn, Urmat Shamyrkanov, Deputy Minister of Emergency Situations of the Kyrgyz Republic, said: "The creation of this system is one of the important directions of ensuring a comprehensive response to emergency situations in the territory of the Kyrgyz Republic and the integration of the Services 112 and 118, I am sure, will give effective results."

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