Nur-Sultan and Almaty Will Stay Home One More Week

Kazakhstani authorities add more days off for all businesses and organizations that operate in Nur-Sultan and Almaty. Now forced holidays will last until April 13. 

Today, on April 3 Prime Minister Askar Mamin met with members of the State Emergency Commission under the President of Kazakhstan to discuss what is going on currently in the country. 

Health Minister Elzhan Birtanov made a presentation about the sanitary and epidemiological situation in Kazakhstan; heads of local administrations reported on how entire regions and cities cope with coronavirus; Birzhan Nurymbetov, Minister of Labor and Social Security, described what his ministry is doing to save jobs, and Nurlan Ermekbayev, head of the Ministry of Defense, provided detailed information about special territorial military deployment. 

To facilitate the medical system with the flow of patients, the commission approved the construction of the three new infectious hospitals in Nur-Sultan, Almaty, and Shymkent. The production of face masks should be taken under control by the Ministry of Health.

Further, the Prime Minister and Commission members agreed to set Shymkent on quarantine from 9:00 PM on April 4, 2020.

Among other instructions of the Prime Minister to the local executive authorities are: providing not less than 240,000 jobs, creating recruit points to those who have no jobs; introducing the online labor exchange, and guaranteeing that 90% of all products and services have Kazakhstani origins. 

Also, the State Commission discussed remote school education processes, food security, and draft call for special territorial military units. To help the economic sectors that suffer most, officials discussed which categories of businesses probably won’t pay taxes and other payments to the budget in the period from April 1 to October 1, 2020.

In the cities under quarantine, no business or organization can work except health system, law enforcement officials, food groceries and drug stores.