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Epidemics likely to happen more often in the future — official

The government knows how to tackle the current pandemic, but there will not be another one exactly like it, the chief sanitary physician Anna Popova said

ST. PETERSBURG, June 3. /TASS/. Various epidemics are likely to happen more often in the future, head of the Russian Federal Service for Surveillance on Consumer Rights Protection and Human Wellbeing Anna Popova said.

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"Yes, there will be more [epidemics]. And it’s likely that it will happen more than once, more often than before. Because we changed the world, the level of migration, the level of scientific development, the level of synthetic biology development. <…> We can’t say what it will be like, but we need to be ready," she said on Thursday during a session dubbed "Is the new normal a temporary or permanent phenomenon?" held within the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum (SPIEF).

Popova stressed that the government knows how to tackle the current pandemic, but there will not be another one exactly like it. "We need to work on this skill, on knowing how to tackle things, we need to learn all the lessons from it, which is what we are doing right now," she reminded, adding that Russia has begun to form "a sanitary shield".

The St. Petersburg International Economic Forum, organized by the Roscongress Foundation, is being held on June 2-5. This year SPIEF’s slogan is "Together Again - Economy of New Reality". The event also includes forums for the Small and Medium-Sized Enterprises (SME), Healthy Society, Drug Safety as well as the SPIEF Junior session. SPIEF-2021 is being hosted in a face-to-face format with all anti-coronavirus measures in effect. TASS is the official photo hosting agency and information partner of the event.

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