‘Health for All by All’ during a pandemic: ‘Protect Everyone’ and ‘Keep the Promise’ of Universal Health Coverage in the Eastern Mediterranean Region
WHO Regional office for the Eastern Mediterranean Region, Awad Mataria, Richard Brennan, Arash Rashidian, Yvan Hutin, Asmus Hammerich, Maha El‐Adawy, Rana Hajjeh
Abstract
The Universal Health Coverage (UHC) Day has been commemorated on 12 December every year since 2017. In 2019, the theme of the day was "Keep the Promise", referring to the Political Declaration on UHC endorsed by Heads of States at the United Nations General Assembly High-Level Meeting on 23 September 2019. In 2020, the theme is "Protect Everyone", emphasizing global and individual health security in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic, attributed to SARS-CoV 2 - a virus that infected more than 4 million people in the Eastern Mediterranean Region (EMR) and left over 100 000 dead in less than 12 months (6.6% and 7.1% of the global toll, respectively). Keeping the promise of UHC, while ensuring health security, is becoming a priority agenda of policy-makers and practitioners in the EMR in order to save lives, advance health and protect livelihoods.