At the government session chaired by the Prime Minister Askar Mamin, the sanitary and epidemiological situation on incidence of COVID-19 was considered. Minister of Healthcare Alexey Tsoy made a report on the measures taken to combat coronavirus infection in Kazakhstan.

According to the minister, the situation in the world remains tense. In total, about 208 million cases of CVI have been registered in the world today, more than 480 thousand cases are recorded per day. More than 4.3 million people have died.

In four of the six WHO regions (America, Europe, Western Pacific, Eastern Mediterranean), an upward trend in incidence has been observed since the second decade of July.

The largest proportional increases in new cases have been reported in the Americas and Western Pacific regions. 38 of the 228 countries in the WHO Member States have seen an increase in new cases of more than 50%.

Over the past week, the largest increase in the incidence was noted in Azerbaijan, where over the week the incidence increased by 121%, Israel — 63%, Japan — 21%.

In Kazakhstan, the weekly growth decreased by 2%. As of Aug. 18, 708,379 patients with a positive result of COVID-19 and 66,381 cases with CVI were registered in the country.

“All regions, with the exception of the Turkistan region, are in the red zone. Over the past three weeks, there has been a gradual stabilization of the epidemiological situation in Kazakhstan, about 53 thousand cases are registered on average per week,” Tsoy noted.

According to him, since Aug. 1, the prevalence index of coronavirus infection in Kazakhstan has decreased by 14% from 1.11 to 0.97.

The occupancy of infectious beds is 53%, resuscitation beds — 47%. High occupancy of infectious beds is noted in Aktobe region — 69%, Kyzylorda region — 66%, Almaty region — 64%.

The minister also noted the stable work of the country's medical organizations, while today more than 120 thousand patients with CVI are being treated.

At the same time, the proportion of patients admitted to intensive care on the first day was more than 40% and is associated with exposure to the more aggressive Delta strain, self-medication of patients and their late seeking medical help.

“In this regard, local executive bodies need to strengthen information and explanatory work on the prevention of disease, prevention of self-medication among the population and timely seeking medical care,” said Tsoy.

The minister also appealed to Kazakhstanis with a request at the first sign of CVI to seek medical help and not self-medicate.

“It should be remembered that following simple rules will save the lives of hundreds of people,” noted Tsoy.

As for the vaccination process, to date, 6.1 million people have been vaccinated with the 1st component in the country, the coverage of the subject population was 62%, with the 2nd component, about 4.8 million people were vaccinated, covering 48% of the subject population.

The greatest coverage, according to the minister, is noted in 6 regions: the cities of Shymkent, Almaty, Turkistan, North Kazakhstan, East Kazakhstan, Kyzylorda regions.

The lowest percentage of vaccination coverage with the first dose is observed in the Mangystau region.

“The regions are provided with a sufficient amount of vaccine. Vaccines are being delivered on schedule. The first batch of Sinopharm vaccine, China, was delivered to all regions. Deliveries continue,” Tsoy reported.

Scaling of the Ashyq project continues.

As the minister noted, the number of project participants exceeded 111 thousand, of which 921 are leaders, the number of users has reached 4 million. Every day, more than 400 thousand Kazakhstanis check their status online.

Monitoring groups continue to monitor compliance with quarantine measures. According to the analysis, over the past two weeks, raid coverage has increased by 16%, and the number of objects with violation has increased by 1.2 times.

“I would like to note that in Aktobe, West Kazakhstan, Kyzylorda, Karaganda regions there is a decrease in the coverage of raids of objects,” Tsoy stated.

Monitoring groups also monitor compliance with quarantine measures at the Ashyq participating facilities. Within the framework of the Ashyq project, monitoring groups covered 60473 objects, violations were revealed at 1,183 objects.

At the same time, as the minister noted, since the introduction of Ashyq, 46,067 visitors with red and yellow statuses have been identified, including 29,930 with a positive PCR test and 16,137 contact persons.

“These statistics show that, unfortunately, some citizens do not comply with the home isolation regime, they try to visit objects of mass gathering of the population, move within the country, thereby posing a threat of infection to others. I earnestly ask citizens who pose a danger to others to show civic responsibility and not to contribute to the spread of the virus,” Tsoy addressed the population.

In addition, according to him, despite the current quarantine measures, celebrations (weddings, memorial dinners and others) with the participation of a large number of people and the establishment of facts of gross violations of quarantine continue in a number of regions.

The minister appealed to the Prime Minister with a request to instruct local executive bodies to strengthen the work of monitoring groups.

In order to ensure further stabilization of the epidemiological situation in the republic and prevent an increase in morbidity and mortality from CVI, the minister made proposals:

• to keep the weekend lockdown in regions located in the “red” and “dark red” zones;
• to strengthen the work of monitoring groups;
• to increase vaccination coverage of the subject population;
• to strengthen awareness-raising work among the population;
• to taking into account the requests of entrepreneurs, to finalize the criteria for the LEADERS of the ASHYQ project.