Russian finance minister stresses need to maintain WHO's central role in 'sanitary shield'
Siluanov announced the possibility of creating a global sanitary shield
The head of the Ministry of Finance also stressed the need to prevent fragmentation of the global health system and maintain the central role of the World Health Organization in it.
MOSCOW, 12 November 2022. /TASS/. Russian Finance Minister Anton Siluanov considers it possible to create a global sanitary shield to combat threats in the healthcare sector. He expressed this opinion at a joint meeting of the ministers of finance and health of the G20 countries.
According to the press service of the Ministry of Finance on Saturday, during the meeting, the minister shared his experience in creating a rapid response system to pandemics in Russia as part of the ongoing federal project "Sanitary Shield", which involves the creation of a system for the rapid diagnosis of infectious diseases, the accelerated development of test systems and vaccines in case of emergence of new epidemiological threats. "We believe that a similar sanitary shield could be built at the global level," Siluanov said.
The head of the Ministry of Finance also stressed the need to prevent fragmentation of the global health system and maintain the central role of the World Health Organization (WHO) in it.
In addition, Siluanov recalled the importance of maintaining and further building up cooperation in the healthcare sector. "In today's interconnected world, it is impossible to ensure epidemiological safety in a single country, so Russia will continue to assist developing countries in the fight against epidemics. Over the past 2 years, such assistance has been provided to more than 60 countries in the form of medical and technical assistance," the minister concluded.