NUR-SULTAN – Kazakhstan’s Acting Minister of Healthcare Zhandos Burkitbayev noted the worsening epidemiological situation in Kazakhstan at the meeting of the interdepartmental commission working to prevent the spread of coronavirus infection on Jan. 9, reports Ministry of Healthcare press service.
The healthcare ministry is tasked with epidemiological situation monitoring in each country region. Photo credit: Ministry of Healthcare.
The country has confirmed 5,093 coronavirus cases since the beginning of January.
The spike in cases is caused by the circulation of the omicron variant, traveling through the country during the holidays, and the lack of compliance with prevention measures.
“According to genotyping results, the rate of the omicron variant is 8.3 percent including seven cases in Almaty and one in Nur-Sultan. The delta variant still prevails in the country – 71 percent,” said Burkitbayev.
As of Jan. 10, 9,014,952 people have received the first dose of vaccine, while 8,551,099 people have been fully immunized against the coronavirus infection.
The Turkistan Region (1,029,123 people) leads in terms of the share of the population who received a full course of vaccination followed by Almaty city (1,014,491 people) and the East Kazakhstan Region (902,517 people).
Throughout the country, only Nur-Sultan is in the high risk red zone, while Almaty and Shymkent remain in the yellow zone. The green zone includes the other 14 regions.
The basic reproductive number (R0 pronounced as R-naught) also grew, reaching 1.5 in the country, and over two in five regions. They include Aktobe, Kyzylorda, Mangystau, Turkistan regions and Nur-Sultan city.
During the meeting, Kazakh Deputy Prime Minister Yeraly Tugzhanov mandated the healthcare ministry analyze the readiness of infectious beds, stocks of medicines, and the healthcare system in each region.
