COVID-19 situation worsens rapidly in Almaty – chief medical officer

ALMATY. KAZINFORM – The COVID-19 situation has got worse rapidly in Almaty city, Krlygash Abdizhabbarova, chief medical officer of the city, said at a briefing at the regional communications service, Kazinform correspondent reports.

The city has been in the «red one» for COVID-19 for the third consecutive day.

«The weekly incidence rate per 100 thousand people has risen by 2.2 times from 47.6 (972 cases) to 105.6 (2,156) amid the rise in the infection rate from 1.4 to 2.5 (by 1.8 times). The new wave of the coronavirus infection began after the New Year holidays and the known events in early January and was caused by the Omicron strain. These were laboratory-confirmed cases of Omicron variant detected as a result of the whole-genome sequencing (WGS) of 96 positive swabs. Seven of the Omicron cases were detected in Almaty. The Delta strain was discovered in 71%, Delta+ in 16%, and other strains in 4.7% of the swabs,» said the chief medical officer.

According to her, there has been the quick rise in weekly cases of the coronavirus infection and reinfection cases to 66 over the past week from 10 in the previous seven days. There has also been the increase in asymptomatic cases from 6% in last December to 11%.

«The number of COVID-19 cases in persons aged from 20 to 40 has sharply risen by 16.4%, and in teenagers by 1.1%,» she said.