Health

In light of the growing number of infected cases and spread of the pandemic, the CEI-WHO designated Task Force (TF) in response to COVID-19 met on 28 October to discuss testing capacities, instruments and solutions adopted in the CEI Member States.

The Italian Health Institute (Istituto Superiore di Sanità – ISS), has recently kicked off two projects financed by Italy in the framework of the CEI COVID-19 Extraordinary Call for Proposals. Both actions will implement activities on Distance Learning on Epidemics and Pandemic outbreaks. One will target the countries of the Western Balkans and the other will target Belarus, Moldova and Ukraine.

“Will we ever be able to be prepared for a pandemic?” This was the theme of the 7th meeting of the CEI-WHO Task Force in response to COVID-19 emergency held on 30 September.

The CEI-WHO Joint Task Force remains dedicated to following the COVID-19 situation and evaluating the transition criteria CEI-wide. Under this perspective, the third and fourth designated e-meetings, which took place on 10 June and 24 June respectively, delved into thematic sessions touching upon the WHO health emergency program, the transition criteria, and surveillance systems. 

The health experts engaged in the joint CEI-WHO Task Force meeting held on May 20 discussed the latest information on the development of COVID-19 outbreak in the CEI region and tabled options to bring it under control in the transition phase.

The CEI- Executive Secretariat (CEI-ES) and the WHO Regional Office for Europe have joined efforts by setting up a functioning Task Force composed of key health officials from CEI Member States to respond to the COVID-19.