Kazakh Health Minister Yelzhan Birtanov on Sunday confirmed that he tested positive for COVID-19 virus and was admitted to an infectious diseases hospital in the Kazakh capital of Nur-Sultan.

“My last coronavirus test showed a positive result. Unfortunately, this is not an asymptomatic form, so I was hospitalized in an infectious diseases hospital,” Birtanov wrote on his Facebook account.

The minister noted that despite the strict sanitary measures, there are always risks of infection, especially for those who cannot work remotely.

“In recent days, there has been an increasing number of infection cases among entrepreneurs, doctors, government employees and media workers in different regions," Birtanov said.

Kazakh President’s press secretary Berik Uali had earlier reported about his coronavirus infection. He said that he was in hospital and his well-being was tolerable on June 6, according to Kyrgyz news agency AKIpress.

The COVID-19 pandemic in Kazakhstan is part of the worldwide pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The virus was confirmed to have reached Kazakhstan on March 13, 2020.  It involved two Kazakh citizens in Almaty who were recently returned from Germany.  That same day, two more cases were confirmed with one female arriving from Italy in Nur-Sultan and the other from Germany in Almaty as well.  

By June 15, a total of 14,809 officially confirmed coronavirus cases have been reported in the country, with 9,188 patients having already recovered.  The coronavirus-linked death toll in Kazakhstan has risen to 77 as of June 15.