Kazakhstan imposes new restrictions to curb expected spread of COVID-19 during Christmas

In a bid to curb the COVID-19 infections, the government of Kazakhstan, on December 20 announced tighter restrictions. Starting December 25, there would be a ban on mass Christmas and  New Year celebrations, corporate parties among others. This comes as the country has recorded 146,584 cases of coronavirus and 2,186 related deaths so far, the Kazakh health ministry stated. 

“The government orders that a ban on the holding of entertainment, sports and other public events, including New Year’s parties and corporate celebrations from December 25 to January 5, the government said in a statement.

Situation under control 

Meanwhile, country’s Prime Minister Askar Mamin chaired a meeting of the Inderapartmental commission and said that the pandemic situation in the country was “under control”. He added that only 28 per cent of hospital beds were currently occupied.  In the aftermath, he also said that the government has agreed to reduce the prices of COVID-19 medicines by an average of 24 per cent as well as partially return schoolchildren and students to classrooms.

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“In order to ensure the quality of education, at the suggestion of the Ministry of Education and Science, as well as taking into account the public opinion, it was decided to provide combined education (70 per cent of subjects in a traditional format, 30 per cent remotely) for grades 9, 11, 12 in the third quarter of the academic year in compliance with sanitary and epidemiological requirements,” the statement read.

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Kazakh President's press services recently revealed that mass vaccination of the Kazakh residents would start in early 2021. High-risk groups, including doctors, teachers and law enforcement agents, will be the first to have access to the vaccine. While no vaccine jab has been approved by country's health ministry, phase 3 clinical trials of QazCovid-in, a COVID-19 vaccine candidate developed by Kazakhstan, are expected to last until the end of April 2021.

Image: AP

(With inputs from ANI)