MINSK. Sept 8 (Interfax) - A Belarusian-Russian exercise focusing on biological security and rapid response measures has been conducted in Minsk, the press service for the Executive Committee of the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) said on Friday.
"An international exercise that involved Belarusian and Russian specialists and dealt with biological security and rapid response issues took place in Minsk on September 6-8 with the use of mobile laboratories," the press service said.
The drills consisted of theoretical and practical parts, during which the participants practiced detecting and identifying pathogens of especially dangerous infections and other biological agents that represent a public health emergency of international significance. Specialists tested the EpiTracker electronic system for monitoring sanitary-epidemiological threats while collecting, accumulating and analyzing field data of a zoological, epizootological and epidemiological nature, the press service said.
The exercise was organized by the Belarusian Research and Practical Center for Epidemiology and Microbiology and the Belarusian Center for Hygiene, Epidemiology and Public Health and Russia's Mikrob scientific research anti-plague institute, which is the CIS base organization in charge of monitoring, prompt notification and joint response to public health epidemiological emergencies.
Such training exercises are conducted as part of the CIS countries' agreement on cooperation in preventing and responding to public health emergencies of a sanitary-epidemiological nature. The document was signed by the CIS states' prime ministers in October 2022.