A new wave of the pandemic and the high contagiousness of the omicron strain was announced in Almaty

The Chief Sanitary Doctor of the city of Almaty, Karlygash Abdizhabbarova, during a press conference of the Regional Communications Service, said that the emerging strain of omicron is rapidly spreading among the population and will soon be replaced by the delta strain. According to the forecast of the epidemiologist, the peak of the next wave of coronavirus is expected in March.

Karlygash Abdizhabbarova, also acting Head of the Department of Sanitary and Epidemiological Control, noted that the increase in the incidence of coronavirus occurred after the New Year holidays. The department constantly analyzes data and monitors which strain of COVID prevails in the metropolis. So far, a delta variant of coronavirus has been found in 71% of samples, a delta plus in another 16% and other strains in 4.7%.
According to the Chief Sanitary Doctor of the metropolis, it has already been confirmed by the laboratory that the new strain has begun to circulate in Almaty. According to the results of whole genome sequencing on January 6, omicrons were detected in 7 samples taken in the city. She added, that this variant of the virus spreads much faster than others and contains many mutations.
“The epidemiological situation for COVID-19 in Almaty has deteriorated sharply, in the matrix for assessing the epidemiological situation in the Republic of Kazakhstan, the city has been in the “red” zone for the third day. Weekly incidence increased by 2.2 times. If, at the beginning of the year, 972 cases were registered, now there are already 2156 patients with coronavirus in the reports. The infection transmission index has also increased by 1.8 times,” K. Abdizhabbarova said.
The Chief Sanitary Doctor of Almaty believes that as long as the population of the metropolis is not vaccinated and doesn’t receive booster vaccinations, new strains of coronavirus will appear. She believes that Almaty residents need to be assisted to achieve the required level of herd immunity. So far, the immune layer against COVID in Almaty is insufficient and amounts to about 60% (51.3% of those vaccinated + 8.2% of those who recovered over the past year).
Karlygash Abdizhabbarova called on the townspeople who underwent primary immunization to come for revaccination. The third vaccination will help to extinguish the undulating process of the epidemic.

“According to the world's leading scientists and experts, revaccination with existing vaccines protects from hospitalization and complicated and fatal cases when infected with the Omicron strain by 70%. I urge unvaccinated citizens to be vaccinated and vaccinated citizens to be revaccinated 6 months after receiving the second component. During this period, it is very important for all residents of the city to strictly comply with the requirements of restrictive measures, observe social distance and mask regime in public places,” says K. Abdizhabbarova.
The speaker warned of the dangers of omicron for the young population in their 20s and 30s. According to her, this variant of the virus is special and affects even this population group. With the advent of omicron, both the weekly incidence and cases of re-infection of previously ill COVID increased sharply from 10 to 66, asymptomatic forms also increased from 6% in December to 11%.
The proportion of people infected with coronavirus has increased sharply among people aged 20 to 40 by 16.4%, among adolescents by 1.1%, which is also typical for the omicron strain.