The Agency for Sanitary and Epidemiological Wellbeing under the Health Ministry of Uzbekistan had an online consultation with the experts of the U.S. Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), the press service of the Foreign Ministry reported.

Deputy Director of the Agency for Sanitary and Epidemiological Wellbeing Bahrom Almatov, head of the reference laboratory of the Research Institute of Virology Larisa Aliyeva and other epidemiologists and emergency experts took part in the consultation, representing Uzbekistan, while the American side was represented by CDC Regional Director for Central Asia David Singer, representative of the CDC head office in Atlanta Ishani Patman, USAID healthcare experts and Kazakhstani virologists.

During the conversation, the sides exchanged views on the organization of quarantine control and epidemiological surveillance, testing for COVID-19 and immunological tests, the methodology for their use, identifying and monitoring contacts of infected people, the development of vaccines, the conditions and procedures for lifting quarantine, and other pandemic countermeasures.

As noted, the CDC regional office expressed its readiness to assist Uzbekistan in countering coronavirus through strengthening the capacity of epidemiological services, conducting technical consultations, providing laboratory equipment as well as protective kits.

In addition, the parties discussed the possibility of developing a system for modeling and predicting the spread of the virus in Uzbekistan, which enables health agencies to predict the dynamics and scale of the outbreak and to calculate when the peak and subsequent decline in the disease is expected.

The consultation also touched upon the prospects for cooperation on implementing the “Point of Entry Program” developed by the CDC to build capacity in healthcare at border crossings, as well as the creation of public health emergency centers.