Iranian Minister of Health:

Tehran (IP) - Iran's Minister of Health, Treatment and Medical Education at a high-level meeting of the UN General Assembly's response to the COVID-19 pandemic said that unilateral sanctions have targeted drugs and medical supplies needed by the Iranian people.

Iran PressIran newsSaeed Namaki, who delivered a video speech at the meeting on Thursday night, local time, added that from the beginning of the outbreak in Iran, according to the 'whole government, whole society' approach, the National Management Committee of COVID-19, chaired by President Rouhani, under the full support of the Leader of the Revolution, was convened to use all national capacities to monitor the disease and approve serious measures for public health to control the disease.

"Accordingly, our strong Preferential Health Care Network (PHC) was not only the core of the three stages of screening through electronic health records, but we also managed to maintain the essential health services to ensure maternal and child care, immunization, tuberculosis, and HIV management as a pioneer in the management of non-communicable diseases and the continuation of health services for chronic patients and the reduction of risk factors, the high ranking official stressed," Namaki said.

Namaki added: "Despite all the restrictions due to illegal and unilateral sanctions, the government has considered special financial packages for the poor and marginalized population, and has implemented economic support measures especially for small businesses, and has coverage and testing programs for providing treatment to 3.5 million legal and illegal Afghan refugees."

"We have taken additional environmental health measures at our borders with neighboring countries, which need significant support from member countries to maintain normal trade," he said.

The Minister of Health, Treatment and Medical Education stated that the COVID-19 pandemic has swept the world and provided many lessons to be learned nationally, regionally, and globally, which shows the unreadiness of the international community to deal with a pandemic.

Namaki stressed that global preparedness and emergency response should be at the top of the agenda of governments and international agencies for decades to come. Leadership, solidarity, cross-sectoral cooperation, evidence-based interventions, and coordination between countries are the tools needed to manage the COVID-19 pandemic.

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