UN Resident Coordinator's Remarks at the Photo Exhibition dedicated to heroes and victims of COVID-19 (as delivered)

Your Excellency Deputy Minister of Culture, Information, Sport, and Youth Policy Chyngyz Esengul uulu,

Dear representative of the Ministry of Health Nurida Erkinbekovna,

Representative of UN Women in the Kyrgyz Republic Ulziisuren Jamsran,

Friends in the media,

Ladies and gentlemen, good morning.

I would like to join the Deputy Minister in wishing all of you a very wonderful and successful year. I wish a productive year for the citizens, as well as for the health of the general population, given the surge of different variants of COVID-19 emerging in different parts of the world.  

This exhibition is powerful. It is convenient to forget what it was like about a year and a half ago. The kinds of stresses, the PPEs and masks that the health workers had to put on to be able to provide support to all of us. Take a look. You see the scourge and the challenges that we faced, the need for support, the number of people died. There is no word to describe how much suffering COVID-19 has caused in Kyrgyzstan, in Central Asia, and around the world. It needs reminding to the public that the virus has not gone away. Therefore, I commend the Ministry for Health, Culture, Sports, and Youth Policy and the Ministry of Health for organizing this exhibition and remind our people the challenges that we faced and the journey we traveled until today, but also the importance of continuing to be aware of this scourge of this pandemic and take all the necessary measures prescribed by the Ministry of Health.

The United Nations system in the Kyrgyz Republic joins the Ministry of Culture, Information, Sports and Youth Policy and the Ministry Health in celebrating the medical personnel for the tremendous sacrifices that they have made and continue to make at those crucial times. They were there at the forefront, they ignored their families, they ignored their own personal pleasures, put their own lives at risk so that they can save lives.

On this day we would like to salute all the medical workers in the country for the amazing work you have done and continue to do. I would like to also solute all the women of the Kyrgyz Republic. They face of the COVID-19 response is the face of a woman. Majority of the healthcare workers are women. Nurses, therapists, you name it. But more importantly, the response in the care economy is also led by women, whether they have family members, husbands, children, relatives who are sick, the carer was a woman. So, in the moments like this, we salute and cherish the women of the Kyrgyz Republic for the sacrifices that they have made. We do not say that enough that they are at the forefront of the response, whether they are medical personnel or family members. We would like to join the ministries in thanking the women of the Kyrgyz Republic for the tremendous sacrifice they continue to make for the growth and health of this country.

There is hardly any family in the country that was untouched by COVID-19 during this tragic period. Many of us lost friends. We lost relatives and family members. Some of us fell sick. We are all survivors. Let us celebrate each other for surviving this difficult period, and re-affirm our readiness for the tasks that remain ahead, because this fight is not over. Not by any chance. I want to acknowledge the various volunteer groups, people in diaspora, different individuals and communities that came together to donate equipment, food for medical personnel, victims, for community recovery. Let us celebrate ourselves as one united country that fought to defeat COVID-19 at its worst in July 2020. Let us use this momentum to also focus on the future in addressing the challenges that face us as a country.             

You may have heard that Omicron is now discovered in one of the countries in our region, in Central Asia. It means that Kyrgyzstan might potentially have Omicron, if it has not come already. But the worst is when I listened to the news yesterday that a new variant has been discovered in Cyprus that combines the elements of Delta and Omicron and is called Deltacron. What it tells us is that we are still not safe. We have to work hard and listen to the Ministry of Health and work on all the key issues, while wearing masks, washing hands and keeping a safe distance, protecting ourselves and protecting our families. It will not go away any time soon. That is why this exhibition is so relevant as a reminder of the challenges we are still facing.

We are supporting the Ministry of Culture, Information, Sports, and Youth Policy in ramping up the campaigns to increase vaccination. Currently, only about a half of our adult population has been vaccinated. The economy will not recover unless people are vaccinated. There is a direct connection between our economic success, our increased income, increased opportunities and vaccination. I would like to call on our friends in the media, I would like to call on all of us, anything that we can do to help increase vaccination is in our own personal interest, not only of the government’s, it is in the interests of our families, so we can spend more time with our family members, doing things that we used to do. Let us join our hands together to take the vaccination to the next level and deal with the infodemic. There are lots of rumors, false rumors about vaccination that we need to address so that the society can recover.

Thank you, Your Excellencies, for organizing this exhibition. The UN system will continue to support all the government initiatives to address the health issues, but also to help the economy to recover.

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