Kyrgyz health official gets coronavirus

BISHKEK — Kyrgyzstan’s Deputy Health Minister Nurbolot Usenbaev had tested positive for COVID-19, becoming one of the 511 new cases of the novel coronavirus in the previous 24 hours, the country’s Health Ministry said on Friday.

The new cases were from 2,672 samples tested within a day, said Ainura Akmatova, head of the public healthcare department of the ministry. The total number of infections has reached 9,358, she said.

Health Minister Sabirzhan Abdikarimov has community-acquired pneumonia, said the official, adding that Usenbaev and Abdikarimov are receiving treatment.

Akmatova noted that 80 of the newly infected are medical workers, bringing the total number of infected medical workers to 1,450.

Kyrgyzstan, with a population of 6.5 million, saw a sharp increase in COVID-19 infections in June.

Akmatova said six new virus-related deaths have been registered across the country in the past day, bringing the death toll to 122, while 3,134 patients had recovered from the disease.

Currently, 643 people infected with the virus are in hospital, while 5,459 asymptomatic patients are self-isolated at home.

Kyrgyzstan and some other Central Asian nations are struggling with a surge in COVID-19 cases which is now pushing their healthcare systems to breaking point after they relaxed tough lockdown restrictions in May.

Kazakhstan, an energy-rich Central Asian nation of 19 million people, quickly introduced regional lockdown and travel restrictions to stem the coronavirus pandemic, but it has faced a rise in infections after it lifted the restrictions in May.

According to official data, the number of the country’s pneumonia cases increased by 55 percent in the first half of the year compared with the same period in 2019 — from 63,436 to 98,546. Kazakh authorities have confirmed nearly 53,000 COVID-19 cases with 264 deaths.

Uzbekistan, with 34 million people, has confirmed almost 11,250 cases and 47 deaths, according to the World Health Organization. But more than half of those fatalities occurred within the last two weeks, Reuters reported.