Timor-Leste: COVID-19 Pandemic Response -Leste Red Cross (Cruz Vermelha de Timor-Leste, CVTL) International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies

Federation-Wide Internal Situation Update for Timor-Leste per 27 July 2020 Reporting period: Week covering 20 – 26 July

CVTL personnel elaborating the information on COVID-19 prevention to increase respective community awareness through door to door approach (CVTL/2020)

Partners Supporting the Country

Movement Partners CVTL is supported by IFRC, ICRC, Australian Red Cross and Singapore Red Cross.

Non-Movement Partners

Ministry of Health set up inter-ministerial team to respond to the pandemic. Other agencies involved are WHO, IOM, Oxfam, NGO Maluk Timor.

Context

Global Updates The total number of confirmed cases around the world has surpassed another grim milestone, breaching 15 million mark in this week. The global daily incidence continues to exhibit an overall increasing trend as global daily confirmed cases have reached 284,196 new cases and 628,903 deaths on 27 July—both are the highest global daily recorded. The pandemic has been ongoing for 6 months, and it continues its recent trend of exponential growth. At least 9 countries are reporting test positivity—the percentage of people who test positive of 20%, considerably higher than the WHO recommendation of around 3% – 12% as a general benchmark of adequate testing to support easing social distancing measures. Of these countries, 6 are in

the Americas: Argentina, Bolivia, Colombia, Costa Rica, Mexico, and Panama.1 The top tier also includes Bangladesh, Oman, and South Africa2. Notably, all of these countries are reporting the increase of test positivity as well, which indicates that transmission is outpacing national testing capacity. Other notable countries include at 10.3% (more than tripled since 3 May) and the US at 8.5% (up nearly 90% since 16 June). While these figures are concerning, a number of countries are reporting low test positivity, including , Malaysia, New Zealand, South Korea, and most countries in Europe.3 COVID-19 Resurgence across Countries The US continues to rank the first in term of global daily incidence with 70,106 new cases and 142,755 deaths reported on 27 July. In addition to the US, some other countries are beginning to experience their own COVID-19 resurgence as many countries are still experiencing the effects of their initial wave of transmission. However, some countries that previously contained their epidemic are now facing increased transmission, some on a national scale and others more localized. Both Tokyo, Japan, Melbourne, Australia, and Hong Kong are reporting major outbreaks, which have resulted in the need to re-institute some social distancing restrictions—although not to the level of full lockdown. The Australian state of Victoria has reported a record daily increase of 484 confirmed new cases, up on 374 cases in the previous day, and parts of Victoria, including Melbourne are also under lockdown.4 Hong Kong has made face masks compulsory in all indoor spaces and on public transport, as it reported 113 new coronaviruses recently. In addition, Spain—one of the most severely affected countries early in the pandemic is now exhibiting increased transmission again, following the relaxation of nationwide social distancing policies. Despite early success in containing its COVID-19 epidemic, South Africa has also recently exhibited a resurgence of COVID-19. South Africa accounts for more than half of all COVID-19 cases on the African continent. Notably, South Africa is reporting an increase in excess all-cause mortality, which could potentially be the result of redirecting healthcare resources and services toward the COVID-19 response. While the country’s COVID-19 deaths now exceed 6,000, excess deaths related to natural causes have surpassed 17,000.5 With the surge in COVID-19 incidence, South African President decides to close schools for several weeks and implements a temporary ban on alcohol sales and a mandatory curfew in the hopes that a decrease in alcohol-related incidents will make more hospital beds available for COVID-19 patients and others. Many hospitals in highly populated areas are already reaching their capacity, and oxygen supplies running low. Globally, the number of total confirmed cases has exceeded 16 million. As of 27 July 20206, the total global cases are as follows: Total Confirmed Cases Total Deaths Total Recovered Total Affected Countries 16,201,176 647,928 9,360,046 188 Timor- Leste Updates Meanwhile in Timor-Leste, as of 27 July 2020, the total cases are as follows:7 Total Confirmed New Confirmed Total Tests Total Active Total Total Deaths Cases Cases Cases Recovered 24 0 4203 0 24 0

Timor-Leste remains free of COVID-19 cases as the country has not registered a new case since 24 April and the last patient of COVID-19 recovered on 15 May. As of 27 July, Timor-Leste had confirmed 24 cases of COVID-19 which all have already recovered with 0 deaths. To date, Timor-Leste has tested 4,203 people which resulted in 3,924 negative tests and 255 pending tests. A total of 2,883 people have completed their 14 days mandatory quarantine while 250 people are still in the government’s quarantine facilities (212 in , 7 in Covalima and 31 in ) and 141 people in individuals’ houses. The State of Emergency in Timor-Leste has now been dissolved and the responsibility of continuing to respond and prepare for further outbreaks in the country have been handed to Ministry of Health (MoH). The

1Source https://ourworldindata.org/coronavirus-testing 2 Source: https://myemail.constantcontact.com/COVID-19-Updates---July-22.html?soid=1107826135286&aid=6Z_sxz6nSng 3 Source: https://ourworldindata.org/coronavirus-testing 4 Source : https://www.news.com.au/national/victoria/news/victoria-set-to-break-record-with-484-new-coronavirus-cases/news- story/3f3e5b9d74f8b194af33906c6d4b94de 5 Source: https://www.counterpointresearch.com/coronavirus-weekly-update/ 6 Source: https://gisanddata.maps.arcgis.com/apps/opsdashboard/index.html#/bda7594740fd40299423467b48e9ecf6 7 Source: Ministry of Health Facebook https://www.facebook.com/MinisteriodaSaudeTL

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borders withing the country are opening once a week (every Wednesday) and the mandatory 14 days quarantine for people who travel is still being imposed. The nation is currently focusing its prevention and mitigation actions especially in four municipalities that share a border with Indonesian territories, namely Bobonaro, Covalima, Oecusse, Atauro and Dili. Furthermore, as the situation in the country has shifted, the government is also turning its attention towards economic recovery. Amid the COVID-19 pandemic, the country struggles to contain dengue fever in the community as the disease has claimed more lives this year than in 2019. While the government has been focusing on combating COVID-19, the dengue cases have continued to rise. Dili Health Authority have recorded 10 deaths from Dengue Fever out of a documented 1100 cases since the beginning of the current outbreak in January 2020 and most cases recorded from patients live in Dili, Ermera and Liquiça districts. The Ministry of Health and CVTL have been working closely to contain the dengue fever by spraying pesticide (fogging) in high-risk areas and continuing health promotion to increase public awareness on dengue fever prevention. Schools Reopening in the Country8 As the government continues its strategy of staggering the reopening of school across the country, 80% of Schools both high school and primary school totaling 1,902 have reopened since June. The reopening comes with complying with a list of safety measure requirements released by the Ministry of Education and Ministry of Health. Supports have been received by schools, one of which is from the Australian Government facilitated by Plan International, CARE International, Alola Foundation and UNICEF that provide prevention facilities for primary schools by providing 137 hygiene kits that will be distributed to around 200 schools across municipalities, that consist of soaps, buckets, masks and digital thermometers. In addition, UNICEF also provided 13,000 handwashing stations to schools across country. The Timor-Leste Red Cross (CVTL) has also been supporting the reopening of schools by installing handwashing stations and providing health promotion on COVID-19 prevention in classes. Currently, 13 schools in Dili and one in Atauro as well as other schools in Municipalities, are still preparing to meet the requirements to continue school activities, especially in providing mask, handwashing station, and keep a clean sanitized environment amid the pandemic. The country sets to restart its school activities by month end. Humanitarian Agencies in the Country WHO along with partners namely USAID, JSI, St. John of God, Maluk Timor, HAI and others have been supporting the Ministry of Health (MoH), Hospital Nacional Guido Valadares (HNGV), and Instituto Nacional Saude (INS) in training health professionals on COVID-19 response all over the country. More than 1000 health professional from community health centres from 12 municipalities and the special region of Oecusse, and three referral hospital and the national hospital. The technical curriculum for this training has been developed jointly by the MoH, INS, WHO, Maluk Timor, and St John of God. The training covered 12 main areas of COVID-19 preparedness and response and several other sub-topic, as follow: (1) Introduction to COVID-19; (2) IPC; (3) Triage; (4) PPE; (5) Mild and moderate case management; (6) Psychology; (7) Safe transfer of patients; (8) Communicating with patients and families; (9) TB & HIV care in the context of COVID- 19; (10) Maintaining essential health services; (11) Health promotion; and (12) Palliative care.9 In addition, WHO is supporting the MoH in the area of surveillance by providing additional human resources— recruiting five doctors. The new recruits will be posted in Covalima, Baucau, Maubisse, Oecusse and Maliana. In addition to providing assistance to the municipal health services’ surveillance teams for COVID- 19, they will also be concentrating on the expanded programme for immunization and vaccine preventable diseases surveillance.10 The government announced on 17 July that it received USD 1 million in funding from the Asian Development Bank (ADB) to tackle hunger and poverty over the next six months, which have been exacerbated due to pandemic restrictions on trade and work. The support will be mainly targeted at vulnerable households living in Suai, Bobonaro, Oecusse, Baucau and Dili, where there is serious concern regarding malnutrition, and invested in the local food production by local farmers. This project will run from July to December this year under the joint control of the Ministry of Agriculture and the United Nations Development Program (UNDP)11.

8 Source: http://www.tatoli.tl/en/2020/07/21/timor-leste-80-of-schools-reopen/ 9 Source: https://www.who.int/docs/default-source/searo/timor-leste/14-07-2020-tls-sitrep-51-ncov-eng.pdf?sfvrsn=afc1f25f_2 10 Source: https://www.guideposttimor.com 11 Source: https://www.guideposttimor.com/

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CVTL Response Update

In response to COVID-19 pandemic, as of 27 July 2020, CVTL COVID-19 preparedness operations have been conducting the following programs:

Health and Hygiene Promotion and Services • Continuing efforts to disseminate information related to COVID-19 pandemic to the community in rural and urban areas, and distributing posters on COVID-19 prevention to 13 municipalities—especially strengthening the dissemination activities in Dili as it shares borders with high-risk areas such as Covalima, Oessue, Bobonaro Municipalities and also . • Conducting the door to door approach for disseminating information related to OCVID-19 to ensure that all communities understand the pandemic situation, along with public sensitization on COVID-19 prevention through megaphones in all 13 municipalities. • Continuing with health and hygiene promotion on COVID-19 prevention to students and teachers in several schools as the country is reopening schools that meet the standard of health protocols to reopen schools amid COVID-19. • Continuing with the installation of handwashing stations in several municipalities, especially for schools and public places. This week CVTL has installed 7 handwashing stations with capacity of 200 litters and 1 hand washing stations with capacity of 2300 litters, with details as follow: ▪ Installed 2 hand washing stations in schools located in Dili (Sao Carlos Bebora and Escola 20 de Setembro Metinaro) ▪ Installed 4 hand washing stations in Lequidoe Health Post, Municipalities (200 litters and 2300 litters) ▪ Installed 1 hand washing station in community neighborhood in Barauna, Bikeli Village, Atauro Island. • Scaling up disinfectant spraying activities as the country is reopening several public facilities—both indoors and outdoors such as tents in CVTL HQ, Vera Cruz Health Post, quarantined sites, malls, universities, and schools. • Monitoring facilities in Tasi-Tolu quarantine site—handwashing stations and tents for people who still have to undergo the mandatory 14 days quarantine. • Setting up 6 tarpaulins in Lequidoe Health Post, to support facilities in the health post and packing down 1 tent in Dili Convention Centre. • Providing disinfection and sterilization training to UNETL (União Nasional Eskuteiru Timor-Leste) or Timor-Leste National Scout Union. A total of 24 scout members (15 males and 9 females) attended the training at CVTL NHQ.

Risk Communication and Communication Engagement and Accountability • Distributing KIE Medias on how to safely engage communities during COVID-19 pandemic and RFL Key messages. A total of 4 standing banners and 833 posters on how to safely engage communities along with 500 posters on RFL Key messages have been distributed to local authorities in 3 municipalities in border areas (Oecusse, Dili and Bobonaro Municipalities). The distribution will continue to Covalima by next week. • Participating in a radio talk show by Metro Radio to share about CVTL responses during the pandemic. CVTL Health Coordinator was participating in the talk show. • Finalizing community perception survey on COVID-19 report. This report will be translated from English to Tetun and disseminated internally to all CVTL branches on 28 July.

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• Developing community feedback collection form through KoBo tool with support from IFRC. This form will be used to collect feedback from communities regarding CVTL responses during the pandemic. • Broadcasting a short video on hygiene promotion—students washing their hands on CVTL Facebook page. • Interviewing the scout members who were trained on disinfectant guidance training by CVTL.

Institutional Readiness • Developing the overall National Society Response (CVTL COVID-19 Response Plans) as the pandemic situation has shifted in Timor-Leste. • Introducing the new IT Manager to support CVTL COVID-19 response activities. • Submitting a fundraising proposal to NSIA (National Society Investment Alliance) as a part of fundraising program in supporting the sustainability of organization. The NSIA is a pooled funding mechanism—a joint initiative by IFRC and ICRC, providing flexible multi-year financing and support for the development of National Red Cross and Red Cross Societies to strengthen their capacity in delivering relevant and effective humanitarian services.

Information and Knowledge Management • Preparing for Basic Database Training for all 13 CVTL Branches’ focal points. The activity will mainly focuses on activity reports during CVTL COVID-19 Operation and the objective is to ensure that branches have the capability and capacity to create a database that track and record all activities carried out by branches, especially during COVID-19 operation. The training will be conducted on 27 and 28 July at CVTL NHQ in Dili. • Finalizing the result of community feedback on CVTL responses that was collected using KoBo tools

Communication Management • Producing media monitoring contents related to COVID-19 updates in Timor-Leste to support Communication and Media Monitoring updates developed by IFRC CCST Indonesia and Timor-Leste. • Continuing with the promotion of CVTL’s COVID-19 operation activities through the CVTL Facebook page by uploading photos during CVTL COVID-19 operation. • Submitting articles relate to CVTL response on COVID-19 which will be published on APRO Newsletter. • Preparing the summary of RCRC 7 Principals and COVID-19 information that will be broadcasted through local radios in several municipalities. • Arranging and inviting medias to cover the symbolic ceremony for awarding ANZ Bank Timor-Leste with platinum card membership at CVTL NHQ. External Relations • Holding a symbolic ceremony for awarding ANZ Bank Timor-Leste with Platinum Card Membership as an acknowledgment of ANZ Bank Timor-Leste’s support to CVTL COVID-19 Operation. The platinum card membership is awarded to people or organization that contribute in value more than USD 500 to CVT. The membership will last for a year and the members will always be invited to any CVTL events or celebrations. • Participating in a regular online coordination meeting with IFRC to update on CVTL activities. This week CVTL was focusing on providing feedback on CVTL Interim Report for Japanese Government, updating guidelines of dead body management, producing risk communication materials, and as requested by Secretary State of Civil Protection to procure PPE from Indonesia.

IFRC Appeal and Bilateral Support

The IFRC is appealing for CHF 1.9 billion (USD 1.95 billion) globally to urgently scale up its global response to curb COVID-19 rapid spread and support National Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies all over the world in health care, prepositioning of goods, risk communication and community engagement, epidemic control and community case management, strengthen the emergency operation centre for epidemic/pandemic under response framework, lessons learned from the global network of local responders, cash grants for families, and mitigating impacts of large outbreaks. Out of the CHF 1.9 billion, CHF 450 million will be raised through the IFRC Secretariat in support of National Societies. IFRC may raise additional support as needed based on national risk analysis.

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Out of this appeal, a total of CHF 324,000 confirmed funding is allocated for Timor-Leste.

Operational Strategy

The overall operational objective is to contribute to reducing morbidity, mortality, and social impacts of the COVID-19 outbreak by preventing or slowing transmission and helping to ensure communities affected by the outbreak maintain access to basic social services and can support themselves in dignity. CVTL is receiving package 3, equivalent to CHF 200,000 to undertake the activities outlined in the Emergency Plan of Action (EPoA) for 6 months. Under the coordination with the Timor-Leste inter-ministerial team established by the Ministry of Health, CVTL supported by IFRC will provide PPE, medical equipment relevant to COVID- 19 treatment, and implement risk communication programmes.

IFRC CCST has established a COVID-19 response operation cell that will assist CVTL in designing and monitoring the implementation of the operation plan.

Sectoral Updates: For the period of reporting, IFRC has supported CVTL in various activities as shown in the below table:

Sectors Updates Health • CVTL continue monitoring situation and adjusting it into response plan, currently focusing on cross border surveillance. • Assisting CVTL health team to scale up its community response plan in high risk targeted villages using the ECV (Epidemic Control for Volunteer) toolkits and CBS (community-based surveillance) initiatives • PPE in process of delivery, with support from PMI logistic team. WASH • CVTL still installing handwashing station with various water tank size from 200 litters to 2200 litters. It has been installed in public areas in Dili and in 13 municipalities including in some schools. Still, many requests from the school and public facilities to CVTL to be supported with handwashing stations. • The hygiene kit for household to support CVTL COVID-19 operation activity ins under procurement process. 2000 hygiene kit is expected to be distributed to vulnerable community in needs by August 2020. CEA • Disseminating the COVID-19 Community Perception survey report to CVTL Secretary General and sectoral personnel. • Publishing the report of community perception survey on Relief Web and Community Engagement Hub websites. • Drafting key messages for dissemination in cross-border areas. • Developing Community Feedback form through KoBo tools. Media Monitoring and • Updating the routine content for next week which will be broadcast on Policy Analysis Twitter with a thematic focus on the Installation of Handwashing Stations. • Disseminating media monitoring materials related to situation in Timor- Leste. National Society • Continuing to monitor and remind the volunteers to maintain the health Development protocol during the COVID-19 operation. • CVTL is revising their local transport policy. Some other policies on HR (Leave and Pension), and Volunteer Policy and Procedure are still waiting for board approval. • Banner and posters on RFL messages, COVID-19 prevention information, and how to engage with community have been distributed to branches at the border areas. CVTL is coordinating with the local leaders to support implementing the activities at the border areas.

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Information and • HQ and APRO is collecting information for the implementation/ Knowledge Management achievement for the Global Indicators and Financial Overview from the NSes whose COVID-19 operation is supported by IFRC; an email to CVTL has been sent on 16 July 2020 and the deadline to submit the information is on 31 July 2020. • Supporting the Excel training/orientation for CVTL branch that is scheduled for 27-28 July 2020. • ME plans for Timor-Leste has been shared with Ops. Managers and the rest of the COVID-19 cell team; awaiting for advice/instruction from Ops. Managers.

For more information, please contact:

Anacleto Bento Ferreira; Secretary General, CVTL Jan Gelfand, Head of CCST Jakarta mobile: +670 7742 9380 mobile: +62-811 9690 8324 email: [email protected] email: mailto:[email protected]

Joao Pinto Soares; Health Coordinator mobile: +670 7733 3554 email: mailto:[email protected]

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