27 medical workers have contacted a novel coronavirus (COVID-19) in the Kazakh city of Almaty over the past 24 hours, Fergana news agency reported on April 13.   

Twenty of them work with the central city clinic hospital and seven others are medical workers from the children’s infectious diseases hospital, Mr. Tleukhan Abildayev, the head of the Almaty health directorate, told reporters in an online briefing.

According to him, “an epidemiological investigation has been launched into the cases.” 

Currently, all medical workers in Almaty are undergoing medical examination and anti-epidemic measures have been tightened in all city’s health facilities. 

Meanwhile the Almaty chief sanitary inspector, Ms. Aizat Moldagasimova, noted that one of the cases of the medical workers contracting COVID-19 “was non-observance of the medical workers of all safety precautions.”  

Statista reports that the Kazakh capital Nur-Sultan had the highest number of people infected with COVID-19 in Kazakhstan as of April 13 -- 253 cases, followed by Almaty -- 172 cases.  In total, 972 cases of COVID-19 were reportedly recorded in the country as of April 13.

Meanwhile, Radio Liberty’s Kazakh Service, known locally as Radio Azzatyk, says that according to data from the Ministry of Health of Kazakhstan, 1,179 cases of coronavirus have been registered in the country as of April 13, while 138 patients have recovered.  Fourteen coronavirus-linked deaths have been reported in Kazakhstan as of April 13.  New coronavirus elated deaths have been reported in Nur-Sultan and in Shymkent.