Table 1 Priorities for combating malaria

Ensure the safety of health care workers and the populations they serve through adequate provision of personal protective equipment, hand hygiene and ability to practice social and physical distancing.

Provide resources to enable national malaria control programmes to continue to carry out established programmes.

Maintain campaigns and systems to procure and distribute ITNs, ensuring continuing coverage of high-risk populations.

Secure ongoing production and supply chains of quality-approved malaria diagnostics, treatments and preventives.

Ensure the timely delivery of these essential supplies to all health facilities.

Consider safely implementing campaigns of mass drug administration, especially during periods of peak malaria risk.

Support malaria-endemic countries both in fighting COVID-19 disease and in controlling malaria through an integrated health care programme and community engagement.

Resume, and maintain funding for, non-COVID-19 research, from discovery through to clinical, epidemiological and health system studies [33].

Maintain existing global funding for malaria control and elimination.

Recommit to the elimination of malaria from the Asia Pacific and renew efforts to achieve a malaria-free world.