Kazakhstan to combine COVID-19 and pneumonia cases starting Aug 1

NUR-SULTAN. KAZINFORM - Kazakhstan is to fully switch to the new codes for COVID-19 in the International Classification of Diseases starting August 1, Kazakh Health Minister Alexey Tsoi told an online briefing at the Central Communications Service on Friday, Kazinform correspondent reports.

According to Tsoi, the Ministry received an official notification from the World Health Organization on classification and registration of COVID-19 cases in a new format on July 11.

The minister went on to say that to date Kazakhstan as well as many other countries had included only laboratory-confirmed COVID-19 cases into their statistics. According to him, the new statistics on COVID-19 cases and deaths will reflect laboratory-confirmed COVID-19 cases as well as non-laboratory-confirmed bacterial pneumonia cases with the similar symptoms.