"The Government has taken all the necessary financial and organisational measures to prevent a pandemic," stressed Mr Zubkov in his introductory remarks.
He mentioned that on October 19, Prime Minister Vladimir Putin signed a resolution allocating four billion roubles from the federal budget for purchasing Russian-produced pandemic influenza vaccines. "Forty-tree million doses of the vaccine will be manufactured, which is twice more than during traditional peaks in seasonal influenza," said the First Deputy Prime Minister, adding that the mass production of the vaccine will start in November at four pharmaceuticals factories in Ufa, Irkutsk and St Petersburg.
"The duty to prevent the pandemic will be mainly shifted to the regional authorities," emphasized Zubkov.
"Regional authorities' short-term tasks include drawing up regional vaccination programmes differentiated by risk groups, which will be used in calculating the necessary volumes of pandemic influenza vaccines to be purchased and in providing pandemic influenza vaccine supplies, and working out the logistic plans for supplying pandemic vaccines to municipal medical institutions," said the First Deputy Prime Minister.
"The leadership of the Russian constituent entities must take this set of measures under personal control," stated Mr Zubkov.
"The state will incur all the costs of purchasing pandemic vaccines. Storing, transporting and effectively using the vaccines, as well as for the epidemic situation in the region, is entirely your responsibility," emphasized the First Deputy Prime Minister, addressing the regional leaders who participated in the videoconference.
Mr Zubkov described measures to counter the spread of influenza A(H1N1) as adequate.
"Nine hundred and ninety-seven cases of the disease have been registered in Russia, with 582 of them brought from abroad," stated Mr Zubkov. "This is a much lower rate than in other countries."
The meeting was attended by the leadership of the Republics of Daghestan and Udmurtia, the Stavropol, Krasnoyarsk and Krasnodar Territories, and the Tver, Kirov and Murmansk Regions.