Coronavirus ‘second wave’ batters ex-Soviet Central Asia

by Tolkun Namatbayeva / with Christopher Rickleton in Almaty

At a call centre functioning as a coronavirus hotline in Kyrgyzstan’s capital Bishkek, the volunteers manning the telephones are under siege.

Call centre coordinator Askhat Abdykerimov says he and his team of more than 60 medics and medical students are now fielding at least 3,000 calls per week.

“When the call centre first opened, we had plenty of calls of a non-medical nature,” Abdykerimov told AFP.

“Now nearly all calls are people ringing in with symptoms of coronavirus infections.”

Bishkek has become a new regional epicentre of the disease that has re-emerged with a vengeance since Kyrgyzstan and fellow ex-Soviet neighbours Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan began relaxing stay-at-home restrictions in May.

Even Turkmenistan, which still insists it is virus-free, on Monday welcomed a 10-day WHO mission that will examine the secretive country’s response to the pandemic.

In Kyrgyzstan, registered daily infections have twice topped 500 this month — more than the total number of people recorded as ill with coronavirus at the time the lockdown was relaxed in late May.

The country has reported more than 8,000 cases but many say the real number of infections is higher, pointing to overflowing hospitals and social media timelines thick with condolences and cries for assistance.

A lack of tests, as well as their poor quality, are two reasons coronavirus is increasingly not being diagnosed or counted as a cause of death, experts say.

Aigul Sarykbayeva, a 54-year-old queuing for a drip treatment at the capital’s main indoor sports venue — recently repurposed as a hospital — has not yet been able to get tested for the virus.

But after battling to secure a lung scan, Sarykbayeva was diagnosed with pneumonia — a condition caused by the virus that she said is ripping through her neighbourhood.

“I sometimes think to myself, is there anyone I know who isn’t ill? Absolutely everyone is ill,” she told AFP. (AFP)

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