BAKU, Azerbaijan, May 14
Trend:
Epidemiological situation in Azerbaijan is largely under control, Assistant to Azerbaijan’s president, Head of Foreign Policy Affairs Department of the Presidential Administration Hikmat Hajiyev told EURACTIV, Trend reports.
Hajiyev said the Azerbaijani government had demonstrated strategic vision and strategic risk analysis.
“Most of the actions Azerbaijan took were preventive, rather than post-factum and the measures, including quarantine, were effective. The epidemiological situation is largely under control,” he noted.
Hajiyev said the country has 24 testing laboratories and some 7,000 tests are conducted on a daily basis. Measures had been taken for raising the preparedness of the health system, by increasing the number of hospital beds, by training doctors and medical personnel, he added.
Regarding the socio-economic difficulties resulting from COVID-19, Hajiyev said the government had mobilized an economic package of almost 3 billion manat (€1.62 billion) to alleviate the situation of the public and private sector.
Asked about the work of the World Health Organisation (WHO) in the context of the COVID-19 crisis, Hajiyev said his country had invited WHO experts to Azerbaijan and they had made a very positive report about the country’s health system preparedness.
In a letter to Azerbaijan’s President Ilham Aliyev, WHO chief Tedros Ghebreyesus called the measures taken by Azerbaijan exemplary, he said.