The 5th APCAT Asia Pacific Summit of Mayors was held on the 17 December under the theme “Mayors’ response to non-communicable diseases (NCDs), Lung Health and Tobacco Use during COVID-19”. Mayors and subnational leaders from Nepal, Philippines, Timor-Leste, India, Cambodia, Myanmar and Indonesia came together to share their insights and exchange experiences regarding the response to the COVID-19 crisis as well as Tobacco Control and NCDs Prevention. The packed summit was viewed by over 500 participants from 20 countries internationally.

Renu Dahal, Mayor, Bharatpur Metropolitan, Chair of the 5th APCAT opened the session by sharing important successes in Bharatpur. “In 2020, several efforts have been made to advance tobacco control, clear signages are placed in all public places. Penalties are implemented for violations. Cessation services have also been set up in B.P Koirala Memorial Cancer Hospital. Bharatpur strengthened its health system by ensuring sufficient beds, selected free healthcare services and medicines as well as ensuring services such as delivering TB medicines has not been disrupted.”

Dr Guy Marks, President of The Union, said that this APCAT Summit’s importance is unlike any other ones in the previous years. Over 72 million cases of COVID-19 worldwide have occurred and over 1.6 million people have died. Millions more lives, families, and livelihoods upended. This is the heart-wrenching heavy price the world has had to pay for weak health systems, poor tobacco control, ineffective prevention of NCDs, and weak action on communicable diseases and other social and commercial determinants of health.

Dr Guy Fones, Head Secretariat of the Global Coordination Mechanism on NCDs, World Health Organisation, also added that addressing NCDs during and after COVID-19 is the way to build back a better world. “The deadly interplay between COVID-19 and NCDs has brought us to this critical juncture. COVID-19 has left many people living with NCDs, undiagnosed, untreated and unprotected. This will lead to a surge and pressure on the health system in the coming years”

“The vast majority of those that succumbed to COVID-19 in Bogor had underlying health conditions such as NCDs and Lung Diseases. Bogor City adopted 4 strategies, 1) Contact tracing, 2) Testing, 3) Education and 4) Health system preparedness to fight against COVID-19” said Dr Bima Arya Sugiarto, Mayor of Bogor City, Indonesia and co-chair of APCAT, speaking about how Bogor City has adapted its tobacco control, tuberculosis and NCDs programmes during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Francis A. Garcia, Mayor of Balanga City, Philippines & Co-chair of APCAT stated that Balanga City issued ordinances and Smokefree systems to ensure life could resume and adopt a new normal, saying “People in Balanga are used to a smokefree and regulated environment and this did not lapse during this year. We have issued ordinances to ensure safe distancing and allow for safe reopening of our city.”

“One of the tobacco control strategies in Indonesia is implementation of smokefree public areas,” said Dr Oscar Primadi, Secretary General of Ministry of Health, Indonesia, who spoke of the hope for Indonesia, “397 subnational regions in Indonesia have adopted these local policies. Our hope is that this will be expanded, efficiently implemented and adopted comprehensively in all jurisdictions.”

Keynote speaker for the summit was Prof. Dr. Muhajir Effendy, Coordinating Minister for Human Development and Cultural Affairs, Indonesia, who spoke about how they are tackling these challenges; “The government of Indonesia has conducted various strategies to limit the spread [of COVID-19]. This pandemic is a community health emergency and is therefore all our shared responsibility, national, subnational, community and individual to respond to overcome it. Moving forward, the vaccine will be made available for all Indonesian people.”

The summit presented the 5th APCAT declaration, which includes six points to accelerate progress towards eventually ending tobacco, as well as preventing the avoidable burden of COVID-19, NCDs, and communicable diseases and thereby averting untimely deaths. Presenting the declaration, Mayor Francis A. Garcia of Balanga City, Philippines and co-chair of APCAT said, “We commit to do everything in our power to ensure that COVID-19, tobacco control, NCDs prevention and TB control programs are effectively implemented and measured and the recovery from COVID is healthy equitable and sustainable.”

The summit also heard from a distinguished panel of subnational leaders and experts shared experiences during the Mayors Panel and experts panel.

The summit was jointly organised by The Union; Bharatpur Metropolitan, Nepal; Bogor City, Indonesia; Balanga City, Philippines; Ministry of Health and Sports, Myanmar; Ministry of Health, Indonesia; APCAT Parliamentarians, APCAT Media and World Health Organization Civil Society Working Group for NCDs. The Union Asia Pacific is the permanent Secretariat of APCAT.