Kazakhstan Assures Firm Control of Covid-19 Spread in the Country

Nur-Sultan, MINA – Despite news reports claiming that Kazakhstan entered the list of countries with the fastest spread of Covid-19, the government of Kazakhstan said today that the situation in the country is under control, and that it is taking all necessary measures to combat the pandemic.

In a press release by the government of Kazakhstan, it denied reports by foreign media such as The New York Times and The Telegraph that the country is among the states with the fastest spread of the deadly virus.

“Such highlights led to a certain misunderstanding of the situation in Kazakhstan, and as a result, to the exaggeration of epidemiological risks coming from the republic of Kazakshtan in the media,” the release said.

The government said that since the beginning of July, it has added all asymptomatic forms of Covid-19 to the morbidity rate, an that increased the infection growth significantly.

“It is well known that both forms of the disease (as with symptoms, as asymptomatic) pose a potential danger to the wider public. Before July, the separate recording was carried out.”

“It is clear that change of record methodology has led to the fact that all cases that were not previously taken into account, were included in the national statistics. As a result, this led to misinterpretation of the figures,” it added.

According to the government, there are 48,847 cases of Covid-19 cases in the country as of 7 July 2020. With 25,021 symptomatic cases and 23,553 asymptomatic cases, 1403 cases per day. The increase is about 3.0%.

Recovered cases in Kazakhstan reached 24,990 cases with a 51.1% recovery rate, with 24,990 patients who still receive treatment and 260 death cases.

Until June, the replication rate of the virus in Kazakhstan was 1.3, but over the last few weeks it decreased to 1.05. Death rate in the country is 0.5% with Kazakhstan ranking on the 35th place by confirmed cases globally.

Kazakhstan announced that it consistently caring out mass testings programmers. In total 1,631,817 Covid-10 lab tests were conducted with a rate of 8,746 per 100 thousand people. 48,847 tested positive, while 1,582,943 tested negative.

According to worldometers.info, Kazakhstan ranks 19th in the world in terms of population testing, in the 54th place on terms of confirmed cases per 1 million people, and in the 113th place in mortality rate.

The government said that In the light of the current circumstances and numbers, quarantine in Kazakhstan will last between 5 – 19 July.

“The restrictions include ban on holding mass gatherings, as well as family events and memorials. The beauty salons, hairdressers, gyms, fitness centers, pools, indoor markets, beaches, water parks, culture facilities, entertainment centers, religious facilities, cinemas, kindergartens, children health camps and other institutions also suspended their activities,” it said.

80% of employees in public institutions, national companies and other organizations will continue to work remotely. Along with restriction on the movement of people in groups of more than 3 people, while essential services will continue operating during this period.

Open air restaurants, construction and industrial plants with a continuous production cycle, open air agricultural and construction works will continue to operate under enhanced sanitary and disinfection measures.

International air traffic will continue without further expansion of the list of countries. At the same time, domestic air flights and trains will be limited. The inter-regional bus services and city buses are suspended for the period of the quarantine.(L/R1/P2)

Mi’raj News Agency (MINA)