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Delta Covid-19 variant: Kazakhstan orders mandatory vaccinations for most workers

Nur-Sultan - After cases of the Delta variant were discovered in the Central Asian country.

Kazakhstan on Thursday ordered mandatory coronavirus vaccinations for a wide range of workers who come into contact with others after cases of the Delta variant were discovered in the Central Asian country.

In a decree released by the government, the ex-Soviet nation ordered workers in sectors ranging from the service industry to banking to entertainment to be inoculated or be restricted from working face-to-face with others.

The government said that the workers must receive their first vaccine dose by July 15 and the second by August 15.

Only those who have been infected with Covid-19 in the previous three months or can prove they have medical conditions that do not allow them to receive a jab are excluded, the decree said.

Unvaccinated workers must be tested for the coronavirus every week, it added.

The measure came after a recommendation last week by Kazakhstan’s coronavirus commission to make PCR tests mandatory for unvaccinated service sector staff and employees of major industrial enterprises.

The commission said the restrictions were necessary because of the highly contagious Delta variant first identified in India.

Some two million people in the country of around 19 million people are fully vaccinated, the health ministry said Thursday, with Russia’s Sputnik V, China’s Sinopharm and Kazakhstan’s own vaccine, known as QazVac, among the jabs available.

Kazakhstan has recorded 425,573 cases of the coronavirus with 4,375 deaths from the disease, according to official figures.