No laboratory confirmed COVID-19 cases have been revealed in Tajikistan yet, Ms. Galina Perfilyeva, the World Health Organization (WHO) Country Representative in Tajikistan, told Kommersant on April 22.
At the same time, she stressed that “It could not be categorically argued that there are no cases of the disease in the country,” according to Kommersant.
“As is known, there are asymptomatic COVID-19 infections. And in Tajikistan, as in the vast majority of countries, there is no way to conduct laboratory tests of the entire population in order to detect them. Currently laboratory tests for a novel coronavirus are conducted in a public health laboratory of the Ministry of Health. Employees of this laboratory have taken a special training course, and we try to help them. Simultaneously, a work is carried out on preparation of additional specialized labs. We are aware of Tajikistan’s limited diagnostic and treatment opportunities,” Ms. Perfilyeva noted, according to Kommersant.
According to WHO country representative, in February-March, a part of samples from Tajikistan were sent for further verification to WHO labs abroad. Currently, when air communication is closed, such a possibility does not exist.
“We make every effort to send material for validation, but for this we need the plane that flies to Russia or Europe. We hope we will be able to send material for verification next week.”
If earlier only random samples had been sent for validation, “now it is very important to verify the negative lab samples of patients with clinical picture of severe cases of atypical pneumonia.”
Ms. Perfilyeva reportedly also noted that WHO had send to the country recommendations on preparation and holding of mass events among the population in order to prevent risk of transmission and spread of the novel coronavirus.
According to her, these recommendations are not being followed sufficiently, but WHO does not have a practice of criticizing one or another country for non-compliance with recommendations, Kommersant said.
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