On 15 July, 2020 the WHO experts, who arrived in Turkmenistan on 6 July, held a press briefing to summarize preliminary outcomes of their visit.
Dr Catherine Smallwood, Senior Emergency Officer, WHO Regional Office for Europe and the head of the mission said that the WHO approves all measures undertaken by the Turkmen government to respond to COVID-19 transmission in the country.
At the same time Smallwood advised the government that “information on risks and what protective measures are introduced as well as regular accurate health advice need to be clearly communicated to the community”.
There was no clear response as to whether the experts identified any COVID-19 positive patients during their visit.
Below are the observations made by the WHO mission:
The delayed arrival of the mission was related to overcoming complex logistic challenges jointly with the Turkmen government;
The WHO team visited hospitals, public health centers, laboratories, and three border crossings;
During the visit the team has been working with Turkmenistan’s authorities to identify the best actions to prevent the spread of COVID-19 in Turkmenistan;
The Turkmen authorities fully recognize the risk currently posed by the virus, and efforts to get ready to respond to COVID-19 transmission in the country are underway;
New restrictions are in place for domestic travel between regions by bus and train. Individual prevention measures are in place including the use of face masks, hand hygiene, and maintaining physical distancing in public places;
Turkmenistan established a national multi-sectoral COVID-19 task force and approved a COVID-19 Preparedness and Response Plan.
Based on the results of the visit the mission issued the following recommendations:
The WHO advises activating the critical public health measures in Turkmenistan, as if COVID-19 was circulating. This includes identifying persons with acute respiratory infections, isolating and testing them early and tracing their contacts;
The WHO experts are aware and concerned about reports of increased cases of acute respiratory disease or pneumonia of unknown cause; therefore, they recommend that surveillance and testing systems are scaled up (later Smallwood said that there were not a large number patients with respiratory diseases in the hospitals they visited;
Information on public health situation and what protective measures are introduced to prevent the spread of viral infections need to be clearly communicated to the community.
The WHO experts emphasized that the health system in Turkmenistan is equipped to respond to COVID-19.
After the WHO experts made a statement the journalists were given an opportunity to ask questions.