On Thursday, April 23, President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev visited infectious disease hospital that was built in two weeks during COVID-19 quarantine regime. A 200-bed modular hospital that occupies 7,000 square meters cost 5.5 billion tenge of budget allocations.
During the visit, Minister of Healthcare Yelzhan Birtanov presented information about current epidemiological situation and ways to improve infection prevention activities. The Head of State examined medical units and wards, which have all necessary equipment for treating patients. Chair of the board of BI Group construction holding (that built the facility) Aydin Rakhimbayev showed the construction progress and major features of the hospital.
In his conversation with doctors, President Tokayev thanked them for their dedicated work. “You are on the frontline of the pandemic. We are very grateful to you for working from dawn to dusk. Unfortunately, in Almaty we were not able to protect the doctors. Now we are dealing with the liquidation of the emergency. Therefore, I ask you to be alert and, above all, to take care of yourself,” he said.
“I understand people don’t feel comfortable obeying the quarantine rules, but there is no other way. In any case, we will keep the regime until the end of this month, and then we will see. We need to think about economic development and small and medium-sized businesses as well. People who earn their living working on a day-to-day basis, of course, should get an opportunity to go back to work. I will say more about this in my television address next week,” Kasym-Zhomart Tokayev stressed.
