Uzbekistan plans to draw grants from the Japanese government to purchase the necessary medical equipment to counter the coronavirus pandemic, the Ministry of Investment and Foreign Trade (MIFT) said in a statement.

The Uzbek Deputy PM/Minister of Investment and Foreign Trade Sardor Umurzakov and the Japanese Deputy PM/Minister of Finance Taro Aso during a video conference discussed the prospects of cooperation in the fight against coronavirus infection.

In the near future, the prospect of attracting grant funds from Japan will be worked out with the aim of channeling them to equipping the Uzbekistan medical institutions with the necessary equipment - mechanical ventilation apparatus (MVD) and polymerase chain reaction (PCR), the statement said.

Sardor Umurzakov expressed gratitude to the Government of Japan for the previously provided humanitarian aid in the form of test systems for the diagnosis of coronavirus and antiviral drugs.

Earlier, the chief state sanitary inspector Nurmat Atabekov said that one PCR device used to detect coronavirus can perform 400 tests in one day. There are more than 40 PCR laboratories in Uzbekistan, and the number of PCR devices under their supervision can be a maximum of about 200.

Last week, the president instructed the Ministry of Health to purchase 2,300 ventilators for US$ 30 million from the Asian Development Bank and the World Bank.