On average in Kazakhstan, daily increase in incidence of CVI decreased by almost 2 times — Ministry of Healthcare 

At the government conference call chaired by Prime Minister Askar Mamin, the progress in implementing anti-epidemic measures was considered. Minister of Healthcare Alexey Tsoy reported on the current situation in the country. 

According to the minister, 100,164 patients were registered in Kazakhstan as of Aug. 11, 2020, and 25,171 of them are receiving treatment, while 73,702 or 73.6% have been discharged. The death toll reached 1,291. The reproductive rate of infection or the number of people who infect one patient before the introduction of strict restrictive measures was 1.72. 

“After the introduction of quarantine, we are observing a steady downward trend in the reproductive rate, which has decreased by 2 times — that is, to 0.82. Comprehensive and timely support of the country in a short time allowed expanding the coverage of the disease with expensive diagnostics. Today Kazakhstan ranks 37th in the world in terms of coverage of PCR diagnostics. Of course, this has changed the incidence rates in the country, the number of registered cases has increased — today Kazakhstan is in 43rd place,” Tsoy explained.

Timely isolation of identified patients, coverage of outpatient and inpatient treatment, as well as coverage of observation of contact persons made it possible to maintain the prevalence of the disease, control severe patients. 

As the minister noted, thanks to timely diagnostics, Kazakhstan ranks 70th in deaths from Covid-19. 

“Our country was one of the first to register cases of coronavirus infection without laboratory confirmation based on clinical and epidemiological data. First of all, it was necessary for the awareness of the country's population of the scale of the epidemic. We understood the pressure the healthcare system faced. The introduction of new approaches in statistics allowed us to cover the maximum number of patients with inpatient treatment due to a significant expansion of the bed capacity. It saved hundreds of lives. After all, artificial respiration support necessary for saving life can be provided only in stationary conditions,” Tsoy said. 

For five weeks of quarantine, there has been a 61% decrease in bed occupancy, of which intensive care beds by 69%. Polyclinics have switched to home-based services, and the number of mobile teams has increased by 7.6 times. Today, 3,640 have been created and are operating. 

“The number of online consultations as of Aug. 11, 2020, compared to July 5, has increased 4 times, 404 consulting call centers have been created. The number of ambulance teams has been increased to 2 thousand per day shift. The number of ambulance calls, including those for coronavirus, decreased by 62%. Thanks to the measures taken, the main indicators of the burden on the health care system have been reduced,” the head of the department said.

On average in the country, the daily increase in the incidence rate has decreased by almost 2 times, and the number of recovered people has increased to 73.6%. 

So, on August 11, the picture of reproductive indicators in the regions is below unity, except for the Turkistan region, which once again confirms the effectiveness of the introduced quarantine and the widespread measures taken to stabilize the situation. According to the developed criteria for easing quarantine measures, the ministry monitors the reproductive rates of infection, the incidence rates for the last week, as well as mortality rates. 

“For five weeks of quarantine, reproductive rates decreased 1.15 to 0.82, the incidence rate from 56.73 per 100 thousand population to 36.2. The above positive dynamics of the main indicators and the load on the health care system indicates the possibility of a phased mitigation of quarantine measures. This mitigation should be carried out with strict observance of the mask regime and hygiene in public places, as well as providing information and explanatory work among the population,” Tsoy summed up.

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