COVID-19 Response in Uzbekistan: From RT-PCR Test System to the Clinical Trial of Subunit Vaccine

Abstract

The coronavirus pandemic showed the need for urgently improvement of different sectors in Uzbekistan, especially, the healthcare system and the biopharma industries. Uzbekistan government and private sectors have taken comprehensive measures to control the spread of infection in the country and tried to mitigate the impact of the pandemic. In this chapter, we discussed the primary measures taken to combat the coronavirus pandemic and the details of developing a local reverse transcription real-time PCR (RT-qPCR) detection kit as well as the experience of conducting the phase III clinical trials of the recombinant Uzbek-Chinese vaccine-ZF-UZ-Vac2001 against coronavirus infection. Finally, information is given on the mass vaccination campaign in the country, the difficulties encountered and the achievements made. The developed RT-qPCR detection kit was successfully implemented into production and have widely used for pathogen diagnosis. A total of 6965 volunteers over 18 years old participated in the clinical trials of ZF2001 and the vaccine had an efficacy level of 84.8%. More than 67.6 million doses were administered using seven types of anti-COVID vaccines in the country. The pandemics urged the country to establish a scientific and technical base that aimed at quickly responding to potential future challenges and emergencies.