NUR-SULTAN – The number of coronavirus cases has increased 2.5 times compared to the previous week due to the overall spread of the coronavirus around the world, said Kazakh Minister of Healthcare Azhar Giniyat during a press briefing on July 15.
Minister of Healthcare Azhar Giniyat during a press briefing. Photo credit: ortcom.kz
According to statistics provided by her, the number of coronavirus infections has been increasing in the country since June 20. More than 1,300 confirmed cases of coronavirus are now being registered per day, announced the minister.Seventy percent of the coronavirus patients were registered in the largest cities of Nur-Sultan and Almaty.
“Despite the fact that the morbidity can be high, today almost 90 percent of patients are treated as outpatients. The disease has mild to moderate severity and the mortality rate is very low. It is now reduced to zero,” said Giniyat.
The number of people in hospitals has been a particular concern for the government, however, Giniyat reassured the public that there are enough places for the increasing number of patients. As of July 15, out of the 3,282 available places in 139 infectious disease hospitals, only 570 places are now occupied.
Giniyat also announced that taking into account epidemiological and clinical indicators the matrix of the epidemiological situation has been revised and a new matrix will be used starting from July 15.
The criteria for the new matrix mapping include the level of occupancy of hospitals and intensive care units, vaccination coverage of the population, the spread of the infection, and circulating variants of coronavirus.
According to Giniyat, the matrix has been developed based on the advice of Kazakhstan’s leading specialists and the World Health Organization.
The minister also said that the agency monthly updates the coronavirus forecast.
“Under the pessimistic scenario, the maximum number of registered cases will be up to 4,000 patients per day, in the realistic scenario – up to 2,400, in the optimistic scenario – up to 1,000 cases per day,” said Giniyat.
With another round of timely vaccination measures, the government hopes to ease the spike by the end of August or September, without falling back to harsher measures.
