NUR-SULTAN, June 29. /TASS/. The Kazakh people’s failure to comply with quarantine measures has led to a new wave of the coronavirus, Kazakhstan’s President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev said.

"Our mechanism for holding dialogue with the people is not working properly, the media space is dominated by negative news and the heroic work of our doctors is not covered the way it should be covered. The presidential administration, the government and akimats [local authorities - TASS] are to blame for that," Tokayev pointed out. "Clearly, our people’s carelessness is another reason behind the current increase in coronavirus cases. Many people have stopped abiding by sanitary regulations and precautionary measures," he added.

The Kazakh president said that everyone sought to return to work and visit their families. "The result is here: another wave of the epidemic has hit the country. Immediate measures are required before we lose control of the situation," Tokayev stressed.

On March 15, Tokayev signed a decree declaring a state of emergency over the coronavirus. Kazakhstan’s capital of Nur-Sultan and the city of Almaty went on lockdown. Quarantine measures were also taken in other regions of the country. The state of emergency ended on May 11 but restrictions remain in place in Kazakhstan’s regions. Moreover, the country’s authorities are introducing additional restrictions. Kazakhstan has so far recorded 21,327 coronavirus cases, 183 deaths and 13,008 recoveries.

Coronavirus pandemic

In late December 2019, Chinese officials notified the World Health Organization (WHO) about the outbreak of a previously unknown pneumonia in the city of Wuhan, in central China. Since then, cases of the novel coronavirus - named COVID-19 by the WHO - have been reported in every corner of the globe, including Russia.

On March 11, 2020, the WHO declared the coronavirus outbreak a pandemic. According to the latest statistics, over 10,000,000 people have been infected worldwide and more than 504,700 deaths have been reported. In addition, so far, over 5,568,200 individuals have recovered from the illness across the globe.