Four regions of Kazakhstan to return to strict lockdown

COVID-19 restrictions will be tightened in Nur-Sultan and Shymkent, as well as Karagandy and Atyrau regions as they account for more than half of all new cases and deaths reported in Kazakhstan. Thus, on weekends, regardless of participation in the Ashyq project, the operation of public transport, shopping centers, markets, sports facilities and cinemas is not allowed. Cafes and restaurants will be able to work only for delivery. On weekdays, the Ashyq project participants will be able to work until 8 pm, while those businesses that don’t use this app can only work until 5 pm. At the same time, it was decided to send 80 percent of employees of all organizations to remote work, except for those who had been vaccinated or had recovered from coronavirus within the last three months.

Kazakh Health Ministry predicts peak of COVID-19 infection rate in August

The peak of COVID-19 infection rate in Kazakhstan is forecast for August, the country’s Health Minister Alexey Tsoy said. He announced three possible scenarios for the development of the situation with COVID-19. The projection is based on the circulation of the Indian strain in the country. According to the pessimistic scenario, next month the country will on average report over 6,000 new cases per day. In this case, the total number of coronavirus cases detected from July to September will be around 400,000. According to the optimistic scenario, Kazakhstan will record about 5,000 new cases of COVID-19 per day.

Translation by Assem Zhanmukhanova

Editing by Galiya Khassenkhanova