Prime Minister and Minister of Defence Bisher Al Khasawneh on Wednesday chaired the first meeting of the Council of the National Epidemiology and Infectious Diseases Centre.

The premier, during the meeting, highlighted the importance of the centre’s role in enhancing public health practices in terms of preventing epidemics and communicable diseases, as well as taking the necessary measures to halt their spread and mitigate their effects.

The government has established the centre in implementation of the Royal directives in the Letter of Designation, which directed that the centre enter into force within an institutional and legislative framework, Khasawneh said, according to the Jordan News Agency, Petra.

He also stressed the importance of empowering the centre to start its operations, pointing out that such centres have become an essential within the framework of states’ policies to address the challenges imposed by epidemics and communicable diseases in a proactive, researchable and organisational manner.

President of the National Epidemiology and Infectious Diseases Centre Firas Hawari briefed the gathering on the measures related to the establishment of the centre that will provide diagnostic, research and academic training services.

Establishing the centre is an important step and one of the achievements made in the second centennial of the establishment of the Jordanian state, and it is one of the basic building blocks of the Kingdom’s healthcare structure, he said.

 The council, during the meeting, elected the minister of health as vice president, and tentatively approved a proposed organisational structure for the centre, taking into  consideration the observations and technical opinion of the Legislation and Opinion Bureau and the Prime Ministry’s Institutional Performance Development Unit.