BAKU, Azerbaijan, March 19
By Nargiz Sadikhova - Trend:
Changes to a number of bus routes were made in Kazakhstan’s Almaty due to quarantine regime introduction in the city, Trend reports with reference to the city’s akimat (administrative center).
On March 15, 2020, Kazakhstan’s President Kassym Jomart Tokayev signed a decree introducing an emergency state in Kazakhstan due to coronavirus outbreak, which is relevant from 08:00 (GMT +6) on March 16 till 08:00 on April 15, 2020.
By a decision of State Commission on Provision of Emergency State under the president of Kazakhstan, quarantine regime is being introduced at 00:00 (GMT +6) on March 19, 2020 in Kazakhstan’s Nur-Sultan and Almaty cities due to coronavirus outbreak.
Starting from March 19, 2020, 49 international routes are suspended (92 buses a day) in direction of East Kazakhstan, Turkestan, Kyzylorda, North Kazakhstan and Alamty regions, alongside 63 regular urban and suburban routes (759 units of rolling stock).
Changes were also made to six regular urban routes along exit from the city.
The socially important Almaty – Uzynagash railway route will also be suspended, the report said.
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 8,800. Over 218,000 people have been confirmed as infected. Meanwhile, over 84,000 people have reportedly recovered.
Some sources claim the coronavirus outbreak started as early as November 2019.
Several countries are working on a vaccine against the new virus.
The World Health Organization (WHO) on March 11 declared COVID-19 a pandemic.
---
Follow the author on twitter: @nargiz_sadikh