Five Kazakh cities to be quarantined off over coronavirus spread

BAKU, Azerbaijan, Mar. 29

By Nargiz Sadikhova – Trend:

Five cities of Kazakhstan’s Karaganda region will be closed off for quarantine over coronavirus spread, Head of regions’ Department for Quality Control and Safety of Goods and Services Kanat Askarov said, Trend reports with reference to Kazakh media.

Askarov said that the quarantine regime will be imposed on Karaganda, Saran, Shakhtinsk, Abay and Temirtau cities starting from 00:00 (GMT +6) on Mar. 30, 2020.

“Additionally, a petition will be sent to the state commission to close bus and railway stations, the airport, without restricting special flights. We’ll also petition for the restriction of public transport and ensuring the complete cordon off of the quarantine zone,” Askarov said.

By a decision of State Commission on Provision of Emergency State under the president of Kazakhstan, quarantine regime has been introduced in Kazakhstan’s Nur-Sultan and Almaty cities at 00:00 (GMT +6) on March 19, 2020, due to the coronavirus outbreak.

On March 15, 2020, Kazakhstan’s President Kassym Jomart Tokayev signed a decree introducing an emergency state in Kazakhstan due to coronavirus outbreak, which came in force from 08:00 (GMT +6) on March 16 and will last till 08:00 on April 15, 2020.

First two cases of coronavirus infection were detected in Kazakhstan among those who arrived in Almaty city from Germany on March 13, 2020.

Distribution of overall coronavirus cases in Kazakhstan’s region is as follows:

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 30,900. Over 669,200 people have been confirmed as infected. Meanwhile, over 142,100 people have reportedly recovered.

Some sources claim the coronavirus outbreak started as early as November 2019.

The World Health Organization (WHO) declared COVID-19 a pandemic on March 11.