Russian Health Minister Says Necessary to Support WHO’s Efforts to Combat COVID-19

MOSCOW (Sputnik) - The international community must continue to support the World Health Organisation’s (WHO) efforts to combat the ongoing COVID-19 outbreak and commit to supporting attempts to improve pandemic response mechanisms, Russian Health Minister Mikhail Murashko said during a video conference of G20 health ministers on Sunday.

“I would like to draw three conclusions. The first is that we should support the efforts of the World Health Organization. The second is that today we must think about the need to improve global response mechanisms to meet the challenges posed by infectious diseases. The third is the global issue of access and provision of medical equipment, including regulatory mechanisms and quality control procedures,” Murashko stated.

The health minister added that the current pandemic will allow countries to think of measures to modernize their health care systems in order to improve preparedness for future outbreaks.

“The pandemic allows us today to think about modernizing health care systems, particularly to combat such challenges,” Murashko said at the meeting.

As of Sunday, the World Health Organisation has registered more than 2.2 million coronavirus cases and more than 150,000 fatalities.