The Sanitary Shield program will include several areas: from ensuring a sufficient supply of personal protective equipment and effective test systems to creating high-quality vaccines in the shortest possible time, Deputy Prime Minister Tatyana Golikova said at the round table “The Sanitary Shield of the country means safety for citizens”.
“The first is the timely and early prediction of possible epidemics, the elimination of the risk of their import and spread over the territory of the country. At the same time, it is very important that this happens without border closing. We expect to install 241 checkpoints on the entire external perimeter,” she said.
At the same time, a quick diagnosis of infections should be available for every resident of the country at any point. The Deputy Prime Minister also noted the need to develop a laboratory network: each city with a population of 100,000 people should have its own laboratory.
The deputy prime minister added that the pandemic also showed the need to train medical personnel of “a different quality”. This refers to specialists who deal with issues of epidemiological safety.
“We propose to make this information clear, accessible and accompany it with recommendations on health protection. Another important innovation area that the president identified in his address is the research component: tests should be developed in four days, vaccines, in four months,” Tatyana Golikova said.
The Deputy Prime Minister stressed that in the coming years, 30 billion rubles will be allocated for the creation of a fundamentally new system for providing medical care and building biological safety.
“We will have to rethink the work that was done earlier, not only within the framework of the program, but also within the framework of the law on biological safety, which was signed by the president at the end of last year. We must be ready to respond to potential new threats,” Golikova said.
At the same time, the Sanitary Shield should not create obstacles to communications and movement of citizens, said the first vice-speaker of the Federation Council, Andrei Turchak. He recalled that now, when entering a number of countries, it is necessary to undergo several PCR tests, one after the other. He believes that in the Eurasian Economic Union space, where the activity of Russians is especially intense and important, it is necessary to ensure the recognition of PCR tests taken in the Russian Federation, as well as QR codes obtained in the public services website (gosuslugi).
The head of Rospotrebnadzor Anna Popova supported the proposal and, according to her, the Sanitary Shield program as a whole will contribute to reinforcing the network of state laboratories, expanding the availability of services for the population, and the formation of a sanitary culture.
“The pandemic has very clearly shown that the speed of infection spread today is the speed of movement of an airplane. We must understand how threats arise and how we can prevent their entry into the country. To do this, we provide express diagnostics possible at all checkpoints,” the head of Rospotrebnadzor said.
Russia will expand the network of collaborating laboratories outside the country. They are now available in the CIS and in some other countries. At the same time, it is important to ensure the availability of laboratory services.
“The cost and speed of obtaining test results should be reduced. The increased laboratory capacity will allow us to decipher any unknown infection in 24 hours. We set a task according to which test systems for an unknown infection must be developed in four days. The faster we learn to recognize it, the fewer opportunities there will be for the spread of infection,” Anna Popova stressed.
