OREANDA-NEWS  Officials and public sector employees in Belgorod will have to take courses in first aid, said Vyacheslav Gladkov, Governor of the Belgorod region.

"By the end of January, to train employees of state authorities, local governments and employees of budgetary institutions, primarily located in the city of Belgorod, in order to develop skills in providing primary medical emergency care," Gladkov said during an operational meeting of the government.

The governor added that at the second stage it is planned to train commercial organizations and enterprises. If any of them express a desire to undergo training in advance, the authorities are ready to help them with this.

"We have enough doctors, plus we have self-defense, which has been training for a year. As difficult situations have shown, including on December 30, they have the necessary skills that save people's lives. Therefore, this issue is very important, and we must form skills at another level that none of us even thought about 2 years ago," the head of the region stressed.

Earlier, the governor informed that in Belgorod, at the request of residents, courses on urgent pre-medical care are being resumed. Free classes for everyone are held at polyclinic No. 6, the center for Youth initiatives and the October cinema, and from January 9 an in-depth course will be held at the Warrior center.