Tashkent, Uzbekistan (UzDaily.com) -- Online consultations took place between experts from the Agency for Sanitary and Epidemiological Well-Being under the Ministry of Health of the Republic of Uzbekistan and the Johns Hopkins Center for Health Security. The event was organized by the Embassy of Uzbekistan in the United States, Dunyo reports.

The meeting was attended by First Deputy Director of the Agency Botirjon Kurbanov, director of the Research Institute of Virology Erkin Musabaev, rector of the Tashkent Institute for Advanced Medical Studies Khabibulla Akilov, doctors and epidemiologists from the regions of our country. The American side was represented by a group of American experts led by a senior researcher at CHS, head of the Johns Hopkins University Outbreak Outbreak Surveillance Council, Jennifer Nuzzo.

During the consultations, an exchange of views took place on the issues of epidemiological surveillance, the methodology for maintaining the COVID-19 outbreak map in the world, predicting the spread of the virus and tracking infected people.

The conditions and procedures for removing quarantine measures, the effectiveness of the use of so-called serological tests to determine the level of immunity, a stable virus, and also the results of research on the development of vaccines are separately discussed.

Commenting on the prospects of resuming flights with a particular country, an American expert recommended that, when assessing the spread of the virus at their destinations, it is better to focus not on the absolute number of infected people, but on relative indicators per 100,000 population.

According to Johns Hopkins University expert Jennifer Nuzzo, the spread of the virus will continue until the required level of population immunity achieved through vaccination is achieved. In her opinion, there will probably be a break in the distribution stage during the summer period, however, there is no evidence that COVID-19 will behave similarly to other respiratory viruses. Special attention must be paid to the risk of a pandemic re-outbreak in the autumn and the necessary quarantine measures, the American scientist urged.

As a result of the webinar, an agreement was reached to continue consultations on issues of mutual interest.

It should be noted that the Center for Health Safety is an independent research institute, part of the system of the Medical Center and School of Public Health at Johns Hopkins University, which after the School of Medicine at Harvard University takes second place in the list of the best medical universities in the world.

The center is involved in monitoring the pandemic situation and maintaining a map of the distribution of the coronovirus around the world online (Wuhan Coronavirus (2019-nCoV) Global Cases). CHS is the developer of a series of quarantine and resuscitation guides, tests and tracing of infections, as well as the US national serological test strategy (antibody tests for COVID-19).