On 13 November, 2020 President Gurbanguly Berdymukhammedov opened a new infectious diseases hospital in the village of Yizgant located in Geokdepe etrap.
The in-patient facility, designed to accommodate 200 beds, was built by the construction company Nusay yollary owned by the President’s son-in-law.
According to the state-run news agency TDH, all the necessary conditions are in place in the newly-built hospital to treat patients diagnosed with acute respiratory diseases, tonsillitis, gastrointestinal infections, hepatitis and other infectious diseases including those of unknown origin.
There is a laboratory, an intensive care unit and departments of surgery, obstetrics & gynaecology, physiotherapy and an early treatment centre equipped with state-of-the-art foreign facilities.
While inspecting the hospital, Berdymukhammmedov said that many countries of the world had not been prepared for COVID-19 pandemic and lacked relevant equipment.
“Our primary focus is to provide medical facilities with state-of-the equipment to ensure the efficient performance of medical staff”, – the head of state was quoted as saying.
The President urged healthcare practitioners to learn foreign languages to be able to get familiarized with foreign publications and keep up to date with recent medical research.
After inspecting the clinic, Berdymukhammedov held a field session of the Cabinet of Ministers, in the course of which he spoke about the measures undertaken to prevent the spread of COVID-19 in Turkmenistan.
According to him, since the outbreak of the global pandemic Turkmenistan had closed borders with other countries.Checkpoints were set up to control internal travel between the Turkmen regions.
Disinfection campaigns were carried out on a regular basis; medications, supplies and medical equipment were purchased.Public-awareness campaigns were launched to educate residents about the importance of personal hygiene.
“As a result of precautionary and preventive measures undertaken until present not a single case of COVID-19 has been registered in Turkmenistan, which is a positive trend and our greatest accomplishment”, – the head of state said.
The President also mentioned collaboration with the WHO, whose representative “had familiarized themselves first hand with the measures undertaken to prevent the spread of infectious diseases”.He failed to mention, however, whether the second visit of the WHO team the President had agreed to on 7 August, 2020 with Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, Director-General of the World Health Organization, would take place.
In the course of the meeting, the Aral Sea crisis was also on the agenda.In order to study its impact of the health of residents, the President instructed to build a new hospital with a physiology scientific and research centre in Ashgabat.
The head of state also ordered to build a research centre for virology, bacteriology and epidemiology where fundamental scientific research would be conducted.With the view of fully providing medications to residents, Berdymukhammedov instructed to build several new pharmaceutical factories.