King directs government to bolster health sector to offer quality services

AMMAN — His Majesty King Abdullah on Sunday directed the government to equip the healthcare sector with advanced tools to provide quality services, especially at mobile hospitals and the Royal Medical Services.

Chairing a National Policies Council (NPC) meeting, attended by HRH Crown Prince Hussein, King Abdullah urged balancing the gradual reopening of economic sectors with the protection of public health and safety, according to a Royal court statement.

During the meeting, attended by HRH Prince Feisal, adviser to His Majesty and NPC chairperson, His Majesty reiterated the need to step up random testing for the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) in parallel with the gradual resumption of operations across sectors.

The King was briefed on the situation in the southern region and stressed the importance of abiding by public health and safety regulations.

Speaking at the meeting, Prime Minister Omar Razzaz said that the government, through the Ministry of Health, worked extensively with the Royal Medical Services over the past two months, before the COVID-19 pandemic crisis, to come up with a unified way of providing healthcare services to the public across different sectors.

Razzaz said that this approach contributes to enhancing public health services and guarantees optimal utilisation of the resources available within the public and military health sectors.

The prime minister outlined efforts by the government and the concerned stakeholders to address the economic and social impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic.

He highlighted the recent attention given to conducting as many COVID-19 detection tests as possible and analysing their results.

Razzaz also noted that the government is evaluating the experience of updating curfew regulations in a number of governorates in order to extend them to other areas and expand the process of reopening sectors, while taking into account health and safety regulations, the statement said.