At the government session chaired by Prime Minister Askar Mamin, the issue of the sanitary and epidemiological situation in the country was considered. In general, the Minister of Healthcare Alexey Tsoy reported on the current situation, akims of the West Kazakhstan region Gali Iskaliyev, Atyrau region — Makhambet Dosmukhambetov, Karaganda region — Zhenis Kassymbek reported on measures taken in the KVI red zone regions.

As Tsoy noted, the rates of morbidity and mortality from COVID-19 in the world remains unstable. To date, more than 167 million cases of CVI have been registered in the world, more than 450 thousand cases are recorded per day. More than 3.4 million people died, the mortality rate was 2.1%.

According to the world ranking of 221 countries, Kazakhstan is in 104th place in terms of morbidity and 111th in terms of mortality.

“In Kazakhstan on May 25, 2021, 376,572 patients with a positive result of COVID-19 and 54,716 cases with CVI- were recorded. The country is in the yellow zone,” Tsoy reported.

According to intra-republican indicators, the cities of Nur-Sultan, Almaty, Akmola, Karaganda, Atyrau regions are currently in the red zone. West Kazakhstan region is located on the border between the red and yellow zones. There are 6 regions in the yellow zone: Aktobe, Pavlodar, Kostanay, Mangystau, North Kazakhstan regions and Shymkent. The other 5 regions are in the green zone.

According to the minister, there is a positive trend in reducing the incidence in the country and a gradual stabilization of the epidemiological situation.

The number of detected cases of CVI over the last week decreased by 4 thousand, compared with the weekly incidence in late April — early May.

In general, over the past month, the incidence has decreased by 20%.

If we talk about inpatients, according to the daily monitoring of bed occupancy in the context of regions as of May 25 of this year. the employment of infectious beds in the republic is — 33% and has decreased compared to the beginning of May this year by 8% compared to the beginning of May this year, the employment of intensive care beds has decreased by 2% and is — 26%.

There is also a positive dynamics of bed occupancy in the city of Nur-Sultan — compared to the beginning of May (May 4), the share of bed occupancy decreased from 60% to 47%, in the city of Almaty from 57% to 35% and in the Almaty region — from 56 up to 36%.

There is a decrease in the number of patients undergoing treatment from 38 thousand as of May 15 to 32 thousand as of May 25, including the number of patients in inpatient treatment decreased from 14 to 12 thousand patients, in outpatient treatment from 24, 5 thousand to 20 thousand patients.

“At the same time, I would like to note that since May 5 this year. the number of recovered patients per day exceeds the number of cases per day, which also indicates an emerging trend of stabilization of the epidemiological situation,” said Tsoy.

To date, according to the minister, about 3 million doses of the vaccine have been used, of which 2,015,053 people have been vaccinated with 1 component, which is 20% of the subject population. The second component covers about 1 million people.

Today, vaccination centers have a sufficient number of vaccine doses: about 320 thousand of the first component and 650 thousand of the second component.

An additional 1.7 million doses of Sputnik-V vaccines were produced at the Karaganda pharmaceutical complex and will be delivered to the regions according to the schedule.

The minister also noted that in order to identify new mutations, a genetic study of coronavirus strains circulating in the republic is being carried out on an ongoing basis.

Based on the results of the study of the samples identified in April of this year, the circulation of the British strain was established in 30% of the samples.

The circulation of the Indian strain on the territory of the republic has not been established.

Taking into account the epidemiological situation and vaccination coverage, the ministry has updated the forecast of the epidemiological situation.

“So, under a pessimistic scenario, when the effectiveness of vaccination is at least 60%, the number of registered cases in June-September 2021 will be about 95 thousand people,” Tsoy said.

According to the second realistic scenario, according to the minister, when the vaccination efficiency is at least 80%, the projected number of registered cases in June-September 2021 will be about 69 thousand people.

Under the optimistic scenario, when the vaccination efficiency is at least 95%, the number of registered cases in June-September 2021 will be about 61 thousand people.

It should be noted that the implementation of this or that scenario will directly depend on the activity of citizens in the issue of vaccination.

“In this regard, in order to increase vaccination coverage, we believe it expedient for local executive bodies to take measures to increase vaccination coverage and conduct awareness-raising work among the population,” said Tsoy.

As for the regions, in the West Kazakhstan region, according to the Akim Iskaliyev, 658 new cases of CVI infection have been detected over the past week. Compared to the previous week, the number of cases decreased by 9%.

In order to maximize the detection of cases, the number of tests has been increased. In 13 laboratories of the region, more than 2,000 PCR studies are carried out per day.

Considering that for two months the region has been in the red zone, in order to reduce the influx of residents of districts to the regional center from May 1, 2021, within 14 days, checkpoints were set up along the perimeter of Uralsk and 6 districts located in the red zone.

These measures made it possible to reduce the influx of residents to the regional center by 35%, as well as prevent the holding of mass events.

As a result, the incidence per day decreased from 200-250 in April to 90-100 cases in May 2021.

Monitoring groups continue daily raids. Since May 1, 179 raids have been carried out, 965 objects have been checked, 22 protocols have been drawn up in the amount of 962 thousand tenge.

“Applications from 391 business entities have been submitted to use the Ashуq mobile application,” said Iskaliyev.

Vaccinations of the population are being actively carried out in the region. Of the 138,560 doses of vaccine received, to date, more than 65 thousand people have received component I, and more than 27 thousand people have received component II. In total, 47 vaccination stations have been opened in the region.

There are 18 infectious diseases hospitals, the workload of infectious beds is 39%. The workload of intensive care beds is 40%. There are more than 1400 beds in reserve.

“The situation is under control thanks to the measures taken by the Government to prevent the massive spread of the epidemic,” said Iskaliyev.

In the Karaganda region, as of May 25, 2021, 30,572 laboratory confirmed cases of coronavirus infection were registered.

"A complex of anti-epidemiological measures is being implemented in the region, the effectiveness of the measures taken is confirmed by a 15% decrease in registrations of new infections throughout the past week," said Kassymbek.

The workload and bed capacity decreases. To date, the load in the region averages 34%.

Last week, under the chairmanship of the Minister of Healthcare Alexey Tsoy, a meeting of the Republican Headquarters for Counteracting Coronavirus Infection was held in Karaganda.

Additional recommendations are given for maintaining the positive dynamics of the region.

As the akim noted, in order to maintain a balance between the activities of business facilities and the epidemiological situation in the region, the number of participants in the Ashyq project is increasing, there are already 510 of them.

Active vaccination of the population continues, 93,741 people are fully immunized, the first component covers 154,620 people.

According to the approved terms, by the end of May, vaccination of 105 thousand residents of the region will be fully completed.

Shopping centers with vaccination points were opened last weekend.

The work to stabilize the epidemiological situation will continue and is under constant control.