As the world continues to recover from the devastating impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, we must remain prepared and alert for the next one. In Uzbekistan, the national pandemic preparedness plan was developed following previous pandemic planning workshops as part of the Preparedness and Resilience for Emerging Threats (PRET) initiative in March and June 2024. In light of lessons learned from the COVID-19 pandemic, there is a need to test this national pandemic plan and update it to address gaps demonstrated through a simulation exercise, using the Exercise PanPRET package. This will assess its suitability in the current context and identify opportunities for improvement, with the plan being updated accordingly.
The objectives of this table-top simulation exercise are to:
- strengthen pandemic planning for respiratory pathogens;
- review and update the draft national pandemic plan, with a focus on respiratory pathogens; and
- test specific components of the plan, including multisectoral coordination, management of public health and social measures, risk communication and community engagement and triggers for increasing or decreasing public health and social measures.
The expected output is a report that includes the main updates required for the pandemic plan, recommendations for capacities or systems that need to be strengthened for respiratory pathogen pandemic preparedness and a description of future activities, such as meetings or exercises, to ensure the iterative review and update of plans and systems and continued stakeholder engagement.
Expected outcomes are a validated/updated national pandemic plan that covers respiratory pathogen pandemic preparedness and stakeholders who are coordinated and informed on respiratory pathogen pandemic planning, which includes preparedness and response actions.