Kazakhstan's Aktau port maintains its operations amid coronavirus spread

By Trend

Kazakhstan’s Aktau Sea Port in country’s Mangystau region continues handing of general cargo notwithstanding coronavirus spread fears, Trend reports with reference to the port’s press office.

The port said that transportation of passengers by Aktau port has been suspended over the period from Apr. 3 to Apr. 15, 2020. This excludes those transporting cargo, food items and medicine.

The report also said that passengers transportation suspension did not affect ports activities on general cargo handling.

On Apr. 1 introduction of the quarantine regime in Mangystau region was announced in order to prevent coronavirus spreading. The latest data said that the total number of coronavirus patients confirmed in Kazakhstan is 709, including 6 patients in Mangystau region.

The first two cases of coronavirus infection were detected in Kazakhstan among those who arrived in Almaty city from Germany on March 13, 2020.

On March 15, 2020, Kazakhstan’s President Kassym Jomart Tokayev signed a decree introducing an emergency state in Kazakhstan due to the coronavirus outbreak, which came in force from 08:00 (GMT +6) on March 16 and will last till 08:00 April 15, 2020.

Currently, quarantine regime has been imposed on the majority of Kazakh regions and major cities.

By a decision of State Commission on Provision of Emergency State under the president of Kazakhstan, quarantine regime has been introduced in Kazakhstan’s Nur-Sultan and Almaty cities at 00:00 (GMT +6) on March 19, 2020.

The outbreak of the coronavirus began in the Chinese city of Wuhan (an international transport hub), at a fish market in late December 2019. The number of people killed by the disease has exceeded 82,900. Over 1.4 million people have been confirmed as infected. Meanwhile, over 307,800 people have reportedly recovered.

The World Health Organization (WHO) declared COVID-19 a pandemic on March 11. Some sources claim the coronavirus outbreak started as early as November 2019.