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Coronavirus pandemic

Kazakhstan receives 55 tonnes of medicine from Russia to fight coronavirus

On July 5, Kazakh Deputy Prime Minister Eraly Tugjanov informed that pharmacies across the country the country are lacking medicine

© AP Photo/Vladimir Tretyakov

NUR-SULTAN, July 10. /TASS/. Two Kazakh civil aviation planes with 55 tonnes of medicine to counter the coronavirus infection aboard have arrived from Russia, the national health ministry’s press service said Friday.

"Two civil aviation planes have arrived in Almaty airport, delivering 55 tonnes of most needed medicine from Moscow to treat coronavirus and pneumonia, including antiviral drugs, febrifuges, blood thinners and antibiotics," the statement reads.

Read also

New coronavirus wave hits Kazakhstan, president says

"The prompt delivery of medicine by special planes of the Civil Aviation Committee is one of the measures implemented by the government to urgently fill up the market with vital medicine. These flights will be carried out regularly to saturate the national market and keep pharmacy chains constantly stocked," the press service explained. The ministry underscored that a plane will deliver a similar shipment from India next week.

Kazakhstan developments

On July 5, Kazakh Deputy Prime Minister Eraly Tugjanov informed that pharmacies across the country the country are lacking medicine. According to him, the lack of stocks was provoked by a few reasons, including the heightened demand among the population. The same day, Kazakh President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev said via Twitter that citizens are well within their right to complain about unfounded hike in pharmacy prices on vital medicine. He also instructed the government and law enforcement agencies to address the situation.

The country introduced a state of emergency amid the coronavirus outbreak between March 16 and May 11, however, some lockdown measures remain in place in certain Kazakh regions. As the coronavirus epidemic worsened further, the authorities decided to introduce additional restrictions on July 5 for 14 days with a possibility to extend or tighten them in the future. July 13 was declared national morning day for coronavirus victims.

Currently, Kazakhstan has confirmed 54,747 coronavirus cases, 31,815 recoveries and 264 coronavirus-related fatalities.

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.

On March 11, 2020, the WHO declared the coronavirus outbreak a pandemic. According to the latest statistics, over 12,404,000 people have been infected worldwide and more than 557,700 deaths have been reported. In addition, so far, over 7,235,600 individuals have recovered from the illness across the globe.

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