TEHRAN – The World Health Organization Representative in Iran, Dr. Christoph Hamelmann, has said that the country’s capable health system has greatly helped it contain the coronavirus outbreak.

“In recent decades, Iran has attained many achievements in the production of medical equipment and medicine. Such progress is now helping the country manage the coronavirus pandemic,” IRNA quoted Hamelmann as saying on Monday.

Boosting the capacity for diagnosing the disease by laboratories and taking a dynamic approach to identify patients were among the significant measures in dealing with the coronavirus, he added.

He also referred to the development of social distancing protocols as another policy that was effective in the prevention of the disease.

“However, the incessant work of healthcare workers has made them exhausted. This is a serious problem that should be resolved,” he stressed.

In May, Hamelmann told the Tehran Times that Iran is benefiting from strengths in fighting against the coronavirus epidemic, including a strong primary healthcare system, production surge in a reasonable time, and multisectoral response.

“Looking back to the early days of the outbreak, the virus was almost unknown and there were not quite successful experiences worldwide, however, Iran was among the few countries with a self-sustaining plan in the fight against the epidemic, after China and South Korea.

One of the very important early achievements in Iran was the rapid establishment of a decentralized laboratory testing for Covid-19,” he explained.

On the other hand, Iran, to a certain degree, is a good experience to learn from by other countries due to the strong primary health care system, which focuses on promoting healthcare in rural areas, he said, adding that Iran was one of the few countries in the world which developed test kits as soon as possible despite problems such as licensing and evaluation. 

MG