Chief Sanitary Doctor of Almaty city (Kazakhstan), Zhandarbek Bekshin, signed a decree according to which new quarantine restrictions and bans are imposed in the city and the region on weekends and holidays.
Theaters, cinemas, concert halls, tourist transportation, entertainment centers, Internet cafes, children’s and adult educational centers, children’s entertainment centers, sports events with spectators, banquet halls will be banned or should suspend their work from March 20.
Work of public transport will also be restricted in Almaty. City and suburban routes can only be served on weekends and holidays in the morning from 6.00 to 10.00 and in the evening from 17.00 to 22.00.
The sanitary doctor instructed to switch at least 60 percent of company employees to remote work, banned the work of shopping centers on Saturdays and Sundays; these facilities can work until 17.00 on holidays.
Work of grocery stores, mini markets is limited. They should close by midnight. Food markets will not work on weekends, and on holidays — until 17.00.
Public catering facilities (indoors), including those located in the shopping and entertainment centers with a separate entrance, were allowed to work until 21.00 with an occupancy rate of up to 50 percent.
Almaty is in the red zone in terms of the spread of coronavirus.
According to official reports, about a hundred of infected are hospitalized daily.
On March 16, Zhandarbek Bekshin warned that at the level of hospitalizations of 300 people per day, severe restrictions would be introduced in the city, and if about 500 people are hospitalized daily, a full lockdown is planned with establishment of roadblocks between the city’s districts.
