As the COVID-19 pandemic continues to spread worldwide, the International Organization for Standardization (ISO) held a Member Dialogue webinar on “Agility in crisis: Delivering fast and effective solutions during the pandemic” on October 20. President Song Mingshun was invited to speak at the webinar. On behalf of Standardization Administration of the P.R.C. (SAC), President Song introduced Hangzhou health code standard-----Guide to the management and service of Hangzhou health code.
This webinar was moderated by Lena Dargham, Chair of the Committee on developing country matters (ISO/DEVCO) and Director General at The Lebanese Standards Institution (LIBNOR). Other speakers include Olivier Peyrat, General Director of Association Française de Normalisation (AFNOR); Keeper Morgan, Acting Managing Director of Botswana Bureau of Standards (BOBS) and Yanira Colindres, CEO of Organismo Salvadoreño de Normalización (OSN). There were altogether 189 attendees from 64 countries.
The speakers shared the experiences of their national standards bodies reacting swiftly and creatively with newly-developed standards that responded to the urgent needs of the pandemic. President Song introduced the context, development process and impacts of Hangzhou health code standard, and participated in the panel discussion.
Hangzhou health code is an initiative in the COVID-19 prevention and control by giving play to digital technology in Hangzhou, and has played a key role in the precise and intelligent control of the epidemic and the successful resumption of work and production of enterprises. In the "post-epidemic prevention and control" period, the health code may bring great convenience to health code holders in health care, health consumption, health travel, medical insurance settlement and other services, becoming an important means for digital empowerment of people's health. The Guide to the management and service of Hangzhou health code gives full play to the leading edge of Hangzhou health code in the precise and intelligent control of COVID-19, standardizes the code rules, risk identification and use management of the health code, and realizes promotion and application in a wider range.
Olivier Peyrat introduced the face mask specification (AFNOR Spec S76-001), which led to the development of a European document (CWA 17553:2020) for face masks. Keeper Morgan introduced the standard for alcohol-based hand sanitizer to increase supply, which was freely offered to SMEs, who also benefited from free testing. Yanira Colindres introduced biosecurity standards that OSN developed partnered up with the Tourism ministry in order to cope with impacts of COVID-19 on El Salvador’s tourism industry.
The moderator and speakers had a heated discussion on the positive role of standards in epidemic prevention and control. Other participants were also actively engaged in the panel discussion, sharing positive actions taken by national standards bodies in their countries during the COVID-19 pandemic. At the end of the seminar, ISO Secretary-General Sergio Mujica made concluding remarks. Sergio Mujica pointed out that ISO aims to provide a platform for ISO members to communicate with each other, exchange best practice and inspire standards community to deliver faster and better standards. Through sharing stories of flexibility and innovation of some of the ISO members, the standards community can learn from each other, improve standards development process, become more agile and deliver faster, so that they can develop standards that meet market needs without compromising quality.
(Written & translated by Zhu Tiantian/ Photo by Lu Di & Wang Yimi)
