On 13 November 2020, H.E. General Prayut Chan-o-cha, Prime Minister of the Kingdom of Thailand, delivered a statement at the closure of the resumed session of the 73rd Session of the World Health Assembly (WHA), as the only leader of a country to do so and as invited by Dr. Tedros Adhanom Grebreyesus, the Director-General of the World Health Organization (WHO), who urged “all countries to follow Thailand” on this issue.

Thailand’s success is the result of actions based on evidence-based decision making, strong health systems and the cooperation of all sectors in Thai society. At the same time, Thailand is determined to further develop and improve its capacity to respond to health emergencies, and therefore joined with the WHO to conduct an Intra Action Review (IAR) in order to draw important lessons from Thailand’s COVID-19 response.

The Prime Minister emphasised Thailand’s readiness and solidarity with the international community to fight this pandemic, through building the resilience of health systems and ensuring that treatment and vaccines for COVID-19 are global public goods. All countries and stakeholders must join hands in efforts leading to the achievement of these goals.