Kazakhstan Wants New Measures against Omicron to Enter into Force in January

The acting Health Minister of Kazakhstan, Zhandos Burkitbayev, has suggested implementing new restriction measures against the Omicron variant starting from January 5, 2022. If this policy is adopted, unvaccinated people will not be able to visit shopping centers and other crowded places.

The Ministry of Health wants to accelerate the pace of vaccination due to the surge of COVID-19 cases and the rapid proliferation of the Omicron variant.

To encourage people to get vaccinated, the government is considering implementing new restrictions for those who weren’t vaccinated and have no green status in Ashyq, a local mobile app that shows whether a person was vaccinated or not.

«We suggest putting additional restrictions to allow entrance to shopping centers, trading houses, retail chains, sport and recreational centers, fitness and yoga centers; karaoke; swimming pools; saunas and bathhouses; bank; post offices, and Public Services Centers only for those who have a green status in Ashyq,» said Burkitbayev.

This rule should be effective starting from January 5, 2022.

The official also highlighted that since the vaccination campaign has begun, unvaccinated people account for 95% of all reported COVID-19 cases.

«The higher rate of vaccination, massive revaccination of people and new sanitary measures would allow us to prevent the epidemiologic situation in the country to get out of control,» said the official.

According to the Ministry’s data, about 78.6% of people eligible for vaccination in Kazakhstan have received their first dose of the vaccine; 74.4% have gotten two shots.