Private healthcare organizations not to be involved into COVID-19 testing in Uzbekistan

AKIPRESS.COM - Private healthcare organizations will not be involved into COVID-19 testing, Chief Sanitary Inspector Nurmat Atabekov said Monday.
The Ministry of Justice of Uzbekistan on April 19 said citing the decision of the special nation-wide commission for coronavirus fight that private healthcare organizations will be allowed to make COVID-19 tests until September 1 on the basis of the agreements to be signed with heads of regional disease control centers.
"Laboratories of the health care system and Sanitary and Epidemiological Well-Being Agency are enough to make a necessary amount of coronavirus tests. All costs related to COVID-19 testing will be covered from the public budget," Nurmat Atabekov told a briefing on April 20.
The representative of the operative team for coronavirus fight under the Ministry of Health, Habibulla Okilov, said yesterday there is no need to involve private healthcare organizations.
"The special commission considered possible involvement of private medical clinics, but analysis found that the available public laboratories are enough. This makes involvement of private clinics into COVID-19 testing unnecessary," he said.
Uzbekistan uses RT-PCRT testing, rapid tests are not made.
More than 150,000 coronavirus tests were made. Their number will grow to 500,000 in next few days.
Only the maximum testing coverage will allow to gradually ease quarantine restrictions, Habibulla Okilov said.