At the government session chaired by the Prime Minister Alikhan Smailov, Minister of Healthcare of the Republic of Kazakhstan Azhar Giniyat presented a report on measures to combat the new Omicron strain.

As the minister noted, the increase in the incidence continues in the world, caused by the circulation and spread of the Omicron variant. Additional restrictive measures are being introduced.

Omicron is also rapidly spreading in Kazakhstan, and today the whole country, with the exception of the Turkistan region, is in the red zone. The main indicators characterizing the epidemiological situation in the country also confirm the spread of Omicron.

“Thus, the incidence of coronavirus infection over the past month has increased by 19.6 times, the reproductive number by 2.1 times, the daily volume of testing for COVID-19 has increased by 3.5 times and reached 50,000 tests per day,” Giniyat said.

Mortality, according to the minister, has decreased by 2-2.5 times over the past month. There is no upward trend. The number of patients receiving treatment in hospitals has doubled over the past month, and 5 times at the outpatient level.

“More than 60% of the daily incidence of COVID-19 occurs in three regions. Thus, the incidence in the city of Nur-Sultan has increased by 32 times, while the level of testing is the highest in the country and amounts to more than 10 thousand tests per day,” Giniyat said.

But the rates of vaccination and revaccination of the population decreased by 1.5 times and 4 times, respectively. In Almaty, the incidence of SARS-CoV2 increased by 8 times. The level of testing is recovering and has increased 3.5 times since January 2022. The rates of vaccination and revaccination also decreased by 1.6 and 3 times, respectively. In the Karaganda region, the incidence increased by 9 times, while the rates of vaccination and revaccination decreased by 3 and 3.5 times, respectively.

At the end of last week, republican headquarters were held with the participation of the leadership of local executive bodies of the city of Nur-Sultan and the Karaganda region to assess readiness for an increase in the incidence and measures taken. Recommendations were given. Work with all regions will be continued.

“In total, more than 21,000 infectious beds have been deployed in the country today, 33% are occupied, more than 2,000 resuscitation beds, of which 16% are occupied,” Giniyat informed.

The reserve has 30,000 infectious and 3,000 intensive care beds. According to the minister, the issue of the employment of the bed fund in the regions is under constant control.

As the minister further noted, the incidence of the Omicron coronavirus strain is mostly mild and asymptomatic, characterized by a short incubation period of about 2 days. The first signs of the disease are manifestations of a cold, as in the usual course of influenza and acute respiratory diseases — fever, weakness, headaches, cough.

As of today, 80% or 78,629 patients are in outpatient care.

“The proportion of hospitalized patients from detected cases is 19%, patients with moderate and severe degrees of the disease are admitted to the hospital,” Giniyat noted.

At the same time, according to her, the proportion of severe and extremely severe patients is 5% of those hospitalized. Given the increase in the number of outpatients, the Ministry of Healthcare, together with local executive bodies of the regions, is taking measures to strengthen and organize timely medical care at the PHC level.

There are 3,054 mobile brigades, 1,622 brigades are in reserve. District medical workers are connected to the outpatient treatment of patients with CVI. Emergency medical care is provided by 1,486 ambulance teams, 150 are in the reserve. In total, about 40 thousand medical workers are involved in the provision of medical care to the CVI, while there is a reserve of 4,556 units, of which 1,217 are doctors.

“In order to stimulate the work of employees of PHC organizations, measures have been taken to pay for repeated visits of mobile teams, expansion and active deployment of hospitals at home, through the OSMS,” Giniyat informed.

Along with this, according to the minister, the issue of including 5 services from the comprehensive per capita standard in the list of consultative and diagnostic services is being considered, which in turn will increase the amount of PHC funds and direct the released funds to additional payments to employees for expanding the service area, including vaccination, as well as ensuring the safety of personnel during the period of increasing incidence.

“Also, district health workers are provided with additional payments for CVI in the amount of 3 basic official salaries,” Giniyat informed.

Measures have also been taken to create a stock of medicines and medical devices.

First. The warehouses of the Single Distributor have a two-month replenished stock of 38 types of medicines for the treatment of 60,000 patients.

Second. Medical organizations have a monthly supply of medicines for 91 types of medicines for 7 billion tenge.

Third. At the outpatient level, patients with coronavirus infection are provided with 5 medicines. There are drugs for the treatment of 500,000 patients.

Fourth. In the warehouses of the Single Distributor for intervention in the retail network, in case of need, a two-month supply of 26 medicines for a total of 1.8 billion tenge was formed. The country continues to vaccinate the population.

“Today, more than 9.5 million people have been vaccinated with the first component, coverage of the eligible adult population was 79.6%, more than 8.8 million people have been vaccinated with the second component, covering 75.8% of the eligible adult population,” Giniyat reported.

Of the population of the Republic of Kazakhstan, coverage by the first component was 50%, by the second component — 46.5%. At the same time, according to the minister, the coverage of the subject population varies by region. In three regions of the country — East Kazakhstan, Zhambyl, Turkistan regions, more than 100% of the population subject to vaccination is covered by the first component. In four regions of the country — the cities of Shymkent, Almaty, in the Kyzylorda, North Kazakhstan and Almaty regions, more than 75% of the subject population has been vaccinated. In seven regions, vaccination coverage ranges from 60 to 72%. Low vaccination coverage below 60% is observed in Mangystau and Kostanay regions.

In the republic, the revaccination coverage of the subject population was 26.8%, more than 800 thousand people. In three regions: Nur-Sultan, Atyrau and Turkistan, the lowest coverage is from 13% to 17%.

“In all regions, it is necessary to increase the pace of vaccination and revaccination — this is still the only way to prevent hospitalization, severe course and death from coronavirus infection,” said Giniyat.

The minister recalled that all groups of the population are subject to revaccination after 6 months after the completion of the primary vaccination course. In the first half of the year, about 8 million people are subject to revaccination. Currently, revaccination of all population groups is carried out with Sinopharm and Kazvak vaccines, for people over 60 years old, pregnant women and health workers, the Komirnati Pfizer vaccine is used.

“Currently, the ministry plans to additionally purchase Kazvak, Sinopharm and Komirnati (Pfizer) for revaccination, and 150,000 doses of Sputnik Light will be delivered by the end of January,” Giniyat reported.

According to her, taking into account the complication of the epidemiological situation, the circulation of the Omicron variant, restrictive measures have been strengthened:

- at the points of crossing the state border of the Republic of Kazakhstan, a requirement has been introduced for mandatory presence of a negative PCR test for all arriving from abroad, regardless of vaccination status;

- expanded the list of facilities whose activities are allowed only if they have a green status for Ashyk;

- a differentiated approach is applied to teaching schoolchildren, students, depending on the epidemiological situation in the regions.

“I want to note that the introduction of restrictive measures will be carried out differentially depending on the epidemiological situation in each particular region,” Giniyat said.

The minister urged Kazakhstanis to seek medical help in a timely manner, given the course of CVI caused by the Omicron variant and the similarity of symptoms with ARVI.

“I ask you to stay at home if you have symptoms of SARS, call a doctor or a mobile team at home. I remind you that the Omicron variant is highly contagious, spreads quickly, but is easily treated at the level of polyclinics with timely treatment,” said Giniyat.