Kazkhastan gradually eases quarantine measures

NUR-SULTAN - Most parts of Kazakhstan begin to ease their second coronavirus lockdown from Aug 17 but would keep in place some strict measures such as weekend lockdowns, TengriNews reported on Monday.

Shopping centers, retail chains, beauty salons, spa, gyms, preschool institutions and other venues are allowed to reopen from Monday, though customer scale and working hours would be limited.

Places like religious sites, bars, clubs, food courts, cinemas, museums, exhibitions and swimming pools would remain closed.

Restrictive measures will be maintained over the weekend to further stabilize the epidemiological situation, including the suspension of shopping centers, food markets, beauty salons and education centers and the restriction of public transport on every Saturday and Sunday.

Over 80 percent of staff from the government and state-owned enterprises would continue working from home.

In Atyrau region and Shymkent city which were badly hit by the virus, local authorities decided to prolong the quarantine restrictions until Aug. 31.

Kazakhstan imposed the second nationwide lockdown since July 5 due to the spike in COVID-19 and pneumonia cases.

Health ministry said the epidemiological situation has stabilized with the daily spike in new cases, reproductive rate and bed occupancy dropping significantly since August.

Kazakhstan detected 337 new coronavirus cases over the past day, bringing the overall total to 103,033, including 81,558 recoveries and 1,377 deaths. From Aug. 1-17, the country also recorded 18,465 pneumonia cases with COVID-19 clinical signs, including 216 deaths.