MOSCOW, June 2. /TASS/. Russia’s level of preparedness for epidemiological threats has turned out to be among the world’s best, it needs to be upheld against the threat of new pandemics, Head of the Federal Service for Surveillance on Consumer Rights Protection and Human Wellbeing Anna Popova said at the Federation Council on Wednesday.

"Russia’s level of preparedness for ‘epidemic shocks’ turned out to be one of the highest in the world. These achievements cannot be lost, it is necessary to boost them, considering that the level of health threats in the modern interconnected world continues to grow and future pandemics, unfortunately, are inevitable," she said.

The top sanitary doctor reiterated that over the past 10 years there have been over 10 sanitary-epidemiological emergencies worldwide, including the two largest Ebola outbreaks, the novel coronavirus infection and others. "As recently as yesterday, China reported the emergence of a new bird flu strain pathogenic to humans," she noted.

"The set of sanitary and anti-epidemic measures being implemented in the Russian Federation has allowed us to prevent the explosive growth of the COVID-19 incidence in 2020 and, as opposed to many foreign countries, not to introduce a lockdown after April 2020, not to stop the economy," the head of the sanitary watchdog emphasized.