Tashkent, Uzbekistan (UzDaily.com) – The National Chamber of Innovative Health of the Republic of Uzbekistan held a discussion on 13 May 2020 with the German Robert Koch Institute on topical issues related to the epidemic, including a quarantine exit strategy. This was reported by the press service of the National Chamber of Innovative Health of the Republic of Uzbekistan.

About 50 specialists became participants in online videoconferences. The world-famous German Federal Research Institute named after Robert Koch (RKI) in the days of a pandemic provides the Federal Republic of Germany with the main recommendations regarding COVID-19. Based on them, in the regions of the country, each of which has the authority to make decisions independently, they analyze the situation on the ground and apply quarantine measures.

As the chairman of the National Chamber, Rovshan Izamov, noted, Uzbekistan and Germany had great experience in confronting the COVID-19 pandemic, not only medical but also social. This made it possible to understand that timely quarantine measures and conscious behavior of the population greatly alleviate the consequences of a pandemic and minimize losses.

Directly from the office of the National Chamber, the chief specialist of the Ministry of Health in laboratory diagnostics, professor Abdumalik Aripov, First Deputy Director of the Agency for Sanitary and Epidemiological Well-Being under the Ministry of Health Botirjon Kurbanov, Chief Specialist of the State Inspectorate for Sanitary and Epidemiological Surveillance under the Cabinet of Ministers of the Republic of Uzbekistan Nigora Allabergenova, Deputy Head for Research at the Central Military Clinical Hospital Bakhodir Abdulakhatov and other specialists took part in the online conference and exchanged opinions with German colleagues.

In particular, Bakhodir Abdulakhatov took an interest in the recommendations of the R. Koch Institute for easing quarantine measures. According to Andreas Jansen, deputy director of the Koch Institute for International Health Care (ZIG), the analysis shows that quitting quarantine is harder than quarantining. Currently, in Germany, according to analysts, the first wave of the COVID-19 pandemic is coming to an end and there is a gradual weakening of strict quarantine measures.

“Everyone is interested in when the pandemic will end, but everyone has different answers to this. This is a difficult question. Now is not only an outbreak of infection, but also an outbreak of experts. We should rely only on data, Jansen noted.

He emphasized that Uzbekistan had chosen the very right strategy, dividing the regions into different zones depending on the degree of transmission of the incidence of COVID-19.

“You did the main work, dividing the country into zones. And you need to approach them specifically - depending on the degree of transmission. There should be clear indicators for the zones. In yellow and green dividing zones, it is very important to test already defined patients, as well as contact persons. In the red zone, measures to strengthen quarantine measures are important. We also practice dividing into zones in European countries, this was also applied in China, where Hubei Province was allocated, where the most strict quarantine measures were introduced,” Andreas Jansen said.

German experts explained the reasons for the relatively low mortality in the country from COVID-19. In particular, mass testing gives a great effect. In Germany, about 400 thousand tests for COVID-19 are done per week. There are opportunities to do more, and in certain periods this figure reached 800 thousand tests per week. But today, the Koch Institute believes that 400 thousand is a sufficient level of testing. Recall that the population of Germany - more than 81.4 million people. Such a number of tests allows you to identify patients while the disease is still mild - that is, before hospitalization is necessary.

At the same time, German experts noted that one of the most important indicators during testing is the percentage of "positive" tests, that is, confirming the disease. According to WHO, the normal indicator is from 3 to 12% of “positive” tests of the total number tested. If the indicator reaches 20%, then this indicates that insufficient testing is carried out. In Germany, this figure is at the level of 4-5%. It is even lower in countries such as the Republic of Korea, where they are most successful in coping with a pandemic.

From the territory of Germany, representatives of the Koch Institute also actively participated in the discussion of the conference topics, such as the chief epidemiologist of the Department of Surveillance Ariane Halm, the head of the department of nosocomial infections, surveillance of antibiotic resistance and their consumption Tim Eckmanns, scientific Jan Baumann, Public Health Support Laboratory at ZIG, Evgeniya Boklage, Public Relations Officer, and Thomas Tho, Director of the Charite Infectious Disease Clinic mas Schneider).

In Uzbekistan, representatives of the Embassy of the Federal Republic of Germany in the country joined the healthcare specialists to participate in the conference online.

Given the great interest in continuing the exchange of views, the parties agreed that German experts would answer in writing all the questions raised during the conference. Opportunities will also be explored for expanding the cooperation of the National Chamber of Innovative Healthcare of the Republic of Uzbekistan and the Robert Koch German Federal Research Institute, which was successfully started by this videoconference.