BAKU, Azerbaijan, March 17
By Nargiz Sadikhova - Trend:
Kazakhstan’s SCAT airline company is temporarily suspending a number of flights implementation for the period from March 16 till April 15, 2020 due to emergency state in the country, the company told Trend.
On March 15, 2020, Kazakhstan’s President Kassym Jomart Tokayev signed a decree introducing an emergency state in Kazakhstan due to coronavirus outbreak, which will be relevant from 08:00 (GMT +6) on March 16 till 08:00 on April 15, 2020.
Thus, the company is suspending flights from Kazakh city of Aktau to cities such as Tbilisi (suspended from March 17), Moscow (March 18), Baku (March 17), Makhachkala (March 23), Astrakhan (March 20), Mineralnye Vody (March 21 till 24, and from March 31).
The company also noted that it will carry out a flight from Georgia’s Tbilisi to Aktau on March 27.
The company is also suspending flights on the following routes: Shymkent – Moscow – Shymkent (from March 18), Moscow – Aktau (March 19), Nur-Sultan – Moscow - Nur-Sultan (March 19), Nur-Sultan – Prague - Nur-Sultan (March 19).
The company noted that is taking submission for refunds and tax-free re-booking for flights planned after April 14.
On March 13, 2020, first two cases of coronavirus infection were detected in Kazakhstan among those who arrived in Almaty city from Germany. The latest data said that the overall coronavirus cases in Kazakhstan is 33 people.
The outbreak in the Chinese city of Wuhan - which is an international transport hub - began at a fish market in late December 2019. The number of people killed by the disease has surpassed 7,000. Over 182,000 people have been confirmed as infected. Meanwhile, over 79,000 people have reportedly recovered.
Some sources claim the coronavirus outbreak started as early as November 2019. The symptoms include cough, headache, fatigue, fever, aching and difficulty breathing. It is primarily spread through airborne contact or contact with contaminated objects.
Several countries are developing a vaccine against the new virus.
The World Health Organization (WHO) on March 11 declared COVID-19 a pandemic.
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