NUR-SULTAN – Kazakhstan will stop resuming flights with other countries starting Oct. 5 amid the global spike in COVID-19 cases, said Kazakh Minister of Healthcare Alexey Tsoy at an Oct. 1 press briefing.
Photo credit: airastana.com
After the restrictions were eased, Kazakhstan started to gradually resume international air travel with Egypt, Germany, Kyrgyzstan, Russia, South Korea, Turkey, the Netherlands, the UAE and Uzbekistan.
“Despite the fact that our situation is stable and all regions are in the green, we see the situation is worsening in other countries. Therefore, the interdepartmental commission has made a decision to stop resuming flights with other countries, not to increase the frequency of flights with countries where air travel was resumed, and to reduce the number of flights to Turkey,” said Tsoy.
With rising fears of a potential second wave, many countries started to consider returning to strict lockdown restrictions, including Germany, Spain, and the United Kingdom. The global death toll from coronavirus exceeded one million, while the number of cases passed 32 million.
Officials considered introducing additional requirements for passengers arriving from second category countries, but a final decision has not yet been made.
Countries in the second category are Armenia, Austria, Czech Republic, Great Britain, Greece, Hungary, India, Italy, Kyrgyzstan, Netherlands, Poland, Romania, Russia, Saudi Arabia, Switzerland, Sweden, Tajikistan, Turkey, Ukraine, Uzbekistan, and the United Arab Emirates.
Kazakh citizens arriving from these countries will need to pass a temperature check, fill a form and present a negative COVID-19 test result dated back no more than three days prior to arrival.
Foreigners travelling to Kazakhstan from these countries must also present a negative COVID-19 test result when boarding a plane, otherwise they will be removed from the flight.
“If a person does not have a COVID-19 test result, then they will be confined in quarantine for two days until they pass a COVID-19 test. In case of a positive test result, they will then be shipped to an infectious diseases hospital. The same requirements will apply to people crossing borders by car with the Eurasian Economic Union countries and Uzbekistan,” said Tsoy.
Passengers arriving from countries in the first category, which include Azerbaijan, Belarus, China, Egypt, Germany, Hong Kong, Japan, Malaysia, Mongolia, Singapore, South Korea and Thailand, need to pass a temperature check and fill out medical forms.
