Due to introducing new quarantine restrictions in Uzbekistan, the government takes systematic measures to support the unemployed and needy people who have lost their source of income.
According to the decision of the Special Republican Commission, the state plans to support approximately 120,000 families, who are currently in dire financial straits during the 20-day quarantine period, by providing them with food, medicine and other products.
While compiling the list of families, priority will be given to the following categories:
• Lonely elderly people without a source of support, families with members having disabilities or serious illness, families left without breadwinners, and large families;
• Families whose social benefits do not cover real needs and have no other source of income;
• Families who have lost both parents and whose relatives are guardians of children;
• Families in which one or both parents have disabilities;
• Widows (widowers) with two or more children under the age of 14 and living separately from other relatives;
• Families where one or both parents are unemployed and registered at employment assistance centers as job seekers;
• Families whose members lost their jobs or got temporarily deprived of income due to the pandemic (seasonal worker, master, laborer, barber, taxi driver, cafe, restaurant worker, etc.).
A short-range telephone network is expected to be launched to sponsor, coordinate charities and organize volunteer centers.
Volunteers, who are now the main helpers in delivering the goods to their destinations, are provided with the necessary protective equipment by local authorities - medical overalls, medical masks, gloves, disinfectants, as well as vehicles for continuous movement.
The government has allocated 20 billion soums to implement the above measures. The funds will be used for the purchase of food, medicine and basic necessities for the needy families.
In the future, the state will allocate additional funds as needed to support the population during the quarantine period.
Large businesses are recommended to appoint an employee responsible for monitoring the compliance with sanitary-hygienic and epidemiological requirements at the relevant production, service and trade facilities during the period of quarantine restrictions.
