Uzbekistan takes preventive measures against coronavirus

By Trend

President of Uzbekistan Shavkat Mirziyoyev issued an order on the establishment of a special commission for the preparation of programs of measures to prevent the entry and spread of coronavirus in the territory of Uzbekistan, Trend reports citing the Uzbek media.

The Cabinet of Ministers held a meeting of the extraordinary commission to combat the epidemic, which was chaired by Prime Minister of UzbekistanAbdulla Aripov.

As reported, more than 28,000 people entered Uzbekistan on January 31 only. On February 2, 38 aircrafts from abroad landed at Tashkent International Airport named after I.Karimov from abroad, and 4,194 Uzbek citizens including 84 persons studying in China, were checked by thermometry equipment at sanitary quarantine points, 84 of them are studying in China.

Among those underwent thermometry, one passenger who had arrived from Russia had an elevated body temperature; however, the epidemiological survey conducted by doctors found that this person was not in contact with patients with this disease, the message said.

Another 953 Uzbek citizens who arrived on five trains were checked at six short-stay hospitals of the central Sanitary and Epidemiological Station of Uzbekistan Railways, and no patients with elevated body temperatures were found among them.

Test samples from 21 suspicious citizens were taken to the agency's virological laboratory for coronavirus research. No traces of coronavirus samples were found among the samples taken. As of February 1, no cases of infection with coronavirus were registered among citizens of the Uzbekistan.

In each region, three operational teams consisting of intensive care specialists, infectious disease specialists and epidemiologists were deployed, the report said.

First charter flights from Beijing to Tashkent are scheduled for February 4 and 5, Foreign Ministry reports. Uzbek citizens are asked to arrive in Beijing February 3. The dates of the other flights will be announced additionally.

According to the Uzbek embassy in Beijing, there were 81 Uzbek citizens in Wuhan as of February 1.

On December 31, 2019, Chinese authorities informed the World Health Organization about an outbreak of unknown pneumonia in Wuhan in the central part of the country. Specialists have identified the causative agent - Coronavirus 2019-nCoV. The number of people infected with coronavirus in China exceeded 17.2 thousand people, 361 died. Almost 150 more people became ill outside China, one of them died. World Health Organization has recognized the outbreak as an emergency of international concern.