Today, foreign Minister Rashid Meredov met with experts of the WHO regional office for Europe's technical Advisory mission WHO are on a working visit to Turkmenistan.

A WHO / Europe delegation has arrived in Turkmenistan to familiarize itself with the country's activities and procedures for responding to the COVID-19 case.

During the conversation, the Minister noted the constructiveness and effectiveness of Turkmenistan's long-term cooperation with the world health organization and stressed that the Turkmen side strictly adheres to the recommendations of WHO. At the same time, Turkmenistan's readiness to continue multilateral cooperation at the international and regional levels in the fight against the pandemic was once again confirmed. The foreign Minister also noted that the national Plan for ensuring preparedness to counteract and respond to acute infectious diseases is currently being actively implemented. It also approved a Plan of operational socio-economic measures in Turkmenistan to counter the coronavirus pandemic, which provides for the readiness of all structures to take action to prevent the import of COVID-19 to the territory of the country. In addition, Turkmenistan is currently working with UN agencies to develop a third national plan that covers the humanitarian component of the country's measures to combat COVID-19 infection.

It was emphasized that Turkmenistan has sufficient capacity and resources to promptly analyze all noteworthy cases, including notification of them, for consistent and timely action.

In this context, it was noted that, in view of scientific research confirming the possibility of spreading a new type of coronavirus through tiny aerosol droplets that remain in the air for a long time, an active information campaign is currently being conducted to inform the public about the level of risk that requires special protection, including methods for minimizing it.

Head of the WHO country office Paulina Karvowska expressed gratitude to the government of Turkmenistan from the WHO leadership for the coordinated organization of the visit of the WHO / Europe mission to Turkmenistan and full support. It was noted that the efforts of Turkmenistan aimed at countering COVID-19, including the proposal to create an international Council of medical scientists and the country's accession to the "Platform for access to technologies against COVID-19" (C-TAP) are very significant. Catherine Smallwood, senior emergency specialist at WHO / Europe and head of this mission, spoke about the specifics of this Platform.

Today, the WHO / Europe delegation also met with the leadership of the Ministry of health and medical industry of Turkmenistan, the website reports mfa.gov.tm.