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Coronavirus pandemic

BRICS states plan to hold joint exercises on combating epidemics

Russia finds it important to launch a BRICS center for vaccine research and development. BRICS states agreed to establish this center back in 2018

MOSCOW, April 23. /TASS/. BRICS states (Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa) plan to organize joint exercises on combating various epidemics, Deputy Director of the Russian Foreign Ministry’s Foreign Policy Planning Department Pavel Knyazev said during an online presentation of the Valdai Discussion Club "BRICS and the Rivalry Pandemic."

"There are plans to hold joint exercises with the participation of mobile anti-epidemic units," he said. According to Knyazev, the current novel coronavirus pandemic has highlighted the need to speed up the implementation of such plans within BRICS.

Russia finds it important to launch a BRICS center for vaccine research and development. BRICS states agreed to establish this center back in 2018. "Life has shown that this area of cooperation is crucial and urgent," Knyazev stressed.

He noted that BRICS experts had already begun to develop a mechanism of early infectious disease prevention and diagnosis.

"These and other possible steps to combat the pandemic will be discussed during the upcoming video sessions, namely, during the session between senior healthcare officials of the five [BRICS states]," the diplomat concluded.

In late December 2019, Chinese officials notified the World Health Organization (WHO) about the outbreak of a previously unknown pneumonia in the city of Wuhan, in central China. Since then, cases of the novel coronavirus - named COVID-19 by the WHO - have been reported in every corner of the globe, including Russia.

On March 11, 2020, the WHO declared the coronavirus outbreak a pandemic. According to the latest statistics, over 2,600,000 people have been infected worldwide and more than 184,000 deaths have been reported. In addition, so far, over 723,000 individuals have recovered from the illness across the globe.

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