On March 17, 2020, Dr. Alexander Semenov, Deputy Director for Innovation of St. Petersburg Pasteur Institute, gave an interview to the correspondent of Televizija Srbije (Serbia) Dragan Stanoević.
Alexander Semenov told the reporter that he has visited the People’s Republic of China twice in February: the first time as part of the official delegation of the Federal Service for Surveillance on Consumer Rights Protection and Human Wellbeing (Rospotrebnadzor) and the Ministry of Health of the Russian Federation, and the second time as part of a WHO international team of experts. The head of the mission Dr. Bruce Aylward presented the conclusions generated by WHO international experts on the current state of COVID-19 outbreak.
The following issues were covered during the interview: symptoms of COVID-19, scenarios of COVID-19 virus transmission, infection prevention and control measures, length of time needed to develop a coronavirus vaccine, impact of weather on the spread of virus, etc.
Alexander Semenov also talked about close and fruitful relationship between St. Petersburg Pasteur Institute and Institute of Virology, Vaccines and Sera “Torlak” (Belgrade, Serbia). The Russian-Serbian laboratory was created at the Institute “Torlak” in 2019 where the scientists of two countries conduct joint research projects in the framework of the Scientific Cooperation Program for Measles Elimination.
The scientist wished the Serbian people good health and expressed the readiness of Russian specialists to continue cooperation on the elimination of infectious diseases with Serbian colleagues.
