This was underlined during his participation on Monday in the 76th World Health Assembly (WHA), which is being held until 30 May in the Swiss city of Geneva under the theme 'Health for All'.
The Minister for Health has expressed Spain's willingness to continue promoting work in this area during the country's Presidency of the Council of the European Union, with the development of preparedness and response mechanisms and also promoting an EU health agenda aligned with the objectives of the 2030 Agenda and the One Health approach.
"Spain will continue working to achieve the health targets of the SDG3 and thus meet the most important goal of all, which is none other than improving people's lives," said Miñones.
In the same vein, he expressed our country's commitment to the development of key instruments for dealing with future health crises, such as the International Health Regulations or the new International Agreement on Pandemic Prevention, Preparedness and Response, and underlined the need to continue making progress on issues such as universal health coverage or the fight against epidemics, such as malaria or HIV.
Health for All
The Minister for Health has expressed his recognition of the work and leadership of the WHO and has conveyed to its Director General, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, Spain's commitment to improving healthcare worldwide.
José Miñones highlighted the work of the World Health Organisation during its 75 years of life to preserve health and serve the most vulnerable; work which, he said, is reflected in the recent announcements on the end of the global health emergencies for Covid-19 and mpox.
As the Minister for Health highlighted, these are achievements that recognise the global health effort and commitment to vaccination against SARS-CoV-2 which, in the case of Spain, are reflected, among others, in the fact that 92.6% of the population over 12 years of age are fully vaccinated, in the development of Hipra's Bimervax vaccine and the effective donation of vaccines to the COVAX mechanism.
Among other matters, Miñones expressed the Spanish government's concern about the war in Ukraine and the health situation of the most vulnerable groups "who are suffering the consequences of an illegal war that we continue to strongly condemn".
Non official translation
The Minister for Health, José Miñones, before the start of the opening session of the 76th World Health Assembly (WHA) (EFE)