Kabar News Agency
Kyrgyzstan has announced its first cases of the Omicron strain of coronavirus infection. The National Center for Phthisiology conducted sequencing to determine the strain of coronavirus. Samples were taken in early January among those hospitalized and two of them had the Omicron strain, the Republican Headquarters for Combating COVID-19 said.
Lately, the COVID-19 cases have increased in Kyrgyzstan again. Infections have seen a spike since the beginning of the year, after a previous peak in November. The health authorities announced on January 12 that the fourth wave of COVID-19 has begun in Kyrgyzstan.
According to the daily monitoring of the epidemiological situation in the country over the past 12 days, there has been a high increase in the incidence rate, which indicates the beginning of the fourth wave. Over the past 3 days, the daily increase in morbidity was 30%, at the same time, 60% of registered cases in recent days have mild and asymptomatic disease, the country Health Ministry said adding that the healthcare system of the country is fully prepared for the 4th rise in the incidence of COVID-19.
Since the registration of the first case of coronavirus infection in Kyrgyzstan in March 2020, there have been 3 epidemiological rises: the first rise in incidence was observed in July 2020, when 1,654 cases were registered per day, the second rise was in November 2020 with 606 cases per day. The third rise in the incidence of COVID-19 was observed in June-July 2021, with a peak incidence of 1,965 cases per day. In total, 187,620 COVID-19 cases have been recorded in Kyrgyzstan since the pandemic, 180,629 of them have recovered, 2,826 people have died. Due to increase of incidence of COVID-19, Kyrgyz health authorities started mass testing for of all medical workers, employees of ministries and departments coronavirus since January 10 and detected 20 fresh cases among government workers.
The capital city of Bishkek remains the most virus-hit area in Kyrgyzstan – 89.9 cases per 100 thousand people. In this connection, the city leadership intensified raids on checking the compliance of passengers and drivers with the mask regime in public transport.
In addition, one of the universities in Bishkek, namely Kyrgyz-Turkish Manas University has moved to the online training, after two COVID-19 cases were recorded among students.
The Center for State Sanitary and Epidemiological Surveillance of Bishkek recommended the public and private enterprises to hold meetings in an online format.
Meanwhile, the Mayor’s Office of Bishkek asked residents to take precautions: to refrain from attending public events, keep a distance, wear masks, wash hands and ventilate premises more often, use an antiseptic and get vaccinated. A nationwide vaccination campaign has started in Kyrgyzstan on March 29, 2021. The Central Asian country is inoculating its citizens with the Sinopharm Sputnik-V, Sputnik Light, Astra Zeneca, Pfizer and Moderna vaccines.
To date, a total of 1,254,653 people have been vaccinated in the country, which makes 55% of eligible population and 48% or 1,046,885 people received both doses, according to the latest data of the Republican Headquarters for Combating COVID-19.
In addition, Kyrgyzstan started revaccination of population from November 17. All the citizens could get a booster – the 3rd dose of the vaccine after 6 months after receiving the both shots.
Now, because of worsening of the epidemiological situation, the Health Ministry took a decision to start the 3rd dose against coronavirus infection 4 months after the 2nd dose of the vaccine.
A new anti-record has been observed not only in Kyrgyzstan, but in neighboring Central Asian countries as well.
Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan reported jumps in new COVID-19 cases as both countries said the Omicron variant of the virus was now spreading on their territories. Uzbekistan announced that the first COVID-19 Omicron variant was detected on January 7 in a foreign citizen who arrived in Uzbekistan from abroad, while Kazakhstan registered its first Omicron case the day earlier – on January 6. Both Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan tightened sanitary measures due to the rapid spread of the Omicron strain.
The authorities of Kazakhstan have introduced new coronavirus restrictions. Employees and visitors without “green status” or a PCR test for coronavirus are now prohibited from entering large stores, in particular non-food ones, and malls.
Uzbekistan prohibited mass events and from January 15, citizens entering Uzbekistan will be required to provide the results of a PCR test.
Meanwhile, according to reports, the situation in Tajikistan is calm, but additional epidemiological protection measures have been taken at border crossings in connection with Omicron cases in neighboring countries.
The Tajik Health Ministry reported that since the beginning of this year, not a single case of coronavirus infection has been recorded in the country. Nevertheless, Tajikistan tightened epidemiological control and increased the rate of vaccination of the population.
The Omicron strain was first identified in South Africa. Doctors believe that the new version of the virus is more contagious and can be transmitted, including to those who are vaccinated, but the course of the disease is milder, and patients do not have to be hospitalized.
