Almaty Authorities Don’t Rule Out Presence in the City of Omicron Variant

A new variant of COVID-19 dubbed Omicron may have already come to Almaty, the Interfax-Kazakhstan news agency reported citing Erzhan Babakumarov, deputy head of the mayor.

The city is preparing for a possible outbreak.

«Perhaps, the Omicron variant is already in the city. More new cases have been reported; this is a twofold growth in cases per several days,» said Babakumarov on Thursday.

The official added that the more clear understanding of what is going on may appear in the middle of January as health workers research these new samples.

Earlier this month head of the Almaty city’s Department for Sanitary and Epidemiological Control Sadvokas Baigabulov stated that there is no Omicron variant in Almaty.

However, Baigabulov admitted that all COVID-19 variants can easily be proliferated all over the world; this risk is almost inevitable.

On Wednesday the city’s health authorities reported 62 cases of new COVID-19. A twofold growth if compared to last week. As of December 30, 8,976,006 people in Kazakhstan have been vaccinated with one jab and 8,502,383 people are fully vaccinated.