Tashkent, Uzbekistan (UzDaily.com) -- The Korea International Cooperation Agency (KOICA) in a framework of implementation of the COVID-19 Emergency Response Assistance Program 2020 in Uzbekistan supports Uzbekistan in fighting against the global pandemic of COVID-19 by provision of necessary medical and humanitarian support as well as technical assistance for capacity building in the management of epidemic outbreaks.

KOICA Office in Uzbekistan in partnership with the Sanitary and epidemiological service of the Republic of Uzbekistan under the intermediary of University-Industry Foundation, Yonsei University Health System conducted Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) training at the SES telecommunication center for more than 100 medical personnel of sanitary-epidemiological service of various regions of the country.

PPE is the basic concept and tool to Infection Control against COVID 19. Although there are many PPEs donated from international organizations and other countries, it is the first official training by KOICA Mission Team to conduct the theory of the PPE and the practice on- and off-line to all SES staff members.

Ms. Park, Sunjin, the Director of KOICA Uzbekistan Office and the Administration of Sanitary and Epidemiological Service of Uzbekistan made efforts to bridge the gaps between Tashkent city, regions and districts and the Republic of Karakalpakstan in terms of the safe and proper use of the PPE for healthcare workers, introducing the KOICA CIAT (Capacity Improvement and Advancement for tomorrow) program and the COVID-19 Webinar.

Prof. Yoon, Moonsoo, KOICA Mission Team, said, this is the first step to cooperate between SES including all regional and district levels and the KOICA-YONSEI UNIVERSITY as part of the continuing mentoring program. KOICA has implemented the Quality Improvement in Diagnosis of Infectious Disease for Uzbekistan Project since 2009 to increase the capacity of government officials in diagnosis, prevention and epidemiological surveillance of Water and Food-borne infectious diseases. 

The project will be continued over the next 5 years including the activities for reemerging infectious diseases. In addition, SES will also have special mentoring program to increase capacity building for all of SES members with YONSEI UNIVERSITY HEALTH SYSTEM that is number one medical college in Korea and has one of the biggest and state of an art hospital (Severance) in the world. Today in particular, RN, PhD Noh, Jiyoung (Severance Hospital Center for Disaster Relief Training and Research, Yonsei University) and Prof. Yeom, Joonsup (College of Medicine, Yonsei University) helped this online conference from Seoul, Korea.