Government of Timor-Leste

The Minister of the Presidency of the Council of Ministers, Fidelis Manuel Leite Magalhães, met with the Minister of Health, Odete Maria Freitas Belo, on July 20^th 2020, in the Government Palace, in Dili.

The aim of the meeting was to coordinate the preparation of the Draft Law Proposal related to the first amendment to the Law no. 10/2004, of November 24^th, the Health System Law, to be presented to the National Parliament.

This amendment aims to allow the authorities, with competence in terms of epidemiological and health surveillance, to use public health protection mechanisms, in order to avoid and neutralize risks of spread of diseases among the population.

Among the public health protection measures included in the Draft Law Proposal, is included the possibility of forcing anyone to medical examinations and the possibility, in the case of illness suspicions, included in a list provided by law or administrative regulation, to carry out the hospitalization or compulsive treatment, isolation and quarantine. In situations of catastrophe or serious health emergency, home confinement could also be ordered.

Timor-Leste recorded a total of 24 positive cases, all of which have already recovered, being one of the first Asian countries to be free of COVID-19, together with Laos.

Although Timor-Leste has had no active cases of COVID-19 since May 15^th 2020, the number of infected people worldwide continues to rise, particularly in neighbouring Indonesia, requiring the maintenance of several COVID-19 prevention measures, in order to try to avoid the emergence of new cases in the country and to prepare the answer, in case of the emergence of new cases infected with the disease.

With the end of the State of Emergency, the Integrated Centre Crisis Management coordination responsibilities were transferred again to the Ministry of Health, as the responsible Ministry for the supervision of the health area, mainly in the population health control.