Hospital occupancy in the Kazakh capital has decreased from 90% to 45%, Toppress.kz correspondent reports citing Nur-Sultan’s akimat (mayor’s office). The number of available wards in the hospitals has increased from 369 to over 2,000. Since July 5, the number of patients being treated in infectious diseases and provisional hospitals has decreased by 48% — from 3,357 to 1,758.
Phone calls to the medical services to get health advice or information dropped by over 53% — from 3,410 down to 1,608 per day, emergency calls reduced by 56% — from 2,368 to 1,039, while COVID-19 emergency calls decreased five times — from 350 to 73 per day. But the virus hasn’t gone anywhere. We should keep observing the quarantine, wear masks and observe social distance, acting head of the public health department of Nur-Sultan Aliya Rustemova said at a press briefing on Monday, July 27.
The akimat’s representative stressed that quarantine measures and intensification of outpatient treatment have reduced the burden on medical institutions and doctors. As of July 27, 10,070 cases of COVID-19 have been registered in the city. 6,766 people (67%) have recovered, while 966 stay in hospitals.
In Nur-Sultan, the COVID-19 PCR tests are carried out by nine laboratories, of which seven are public and two — private. Since the start of the pandemic, about 284,000 PCR tests have been made in the capital. Over the past three weeks, laboratories have been carrying out an average of 2,500 tests per day, which is almost 30% lower than in June (3,500).
At the moment there are no problems with the PCR testing in Nur-Sultan. The city’s akimat is trying to increase the number of tests available for residents of the capital by purchasing additional laboratory equipment. At the same time, I would want to highlight that in the absence of coronavirus symptoms and respective personal medical background, PCR tests are not recommended, Rustemova concluded.
