COVID-19 in the Central Asian Region: National Responses and Regional Implications

Abstract

Soon after the first instance of COVID-19 in Central Asia was recorded in March 2020 in Kazakhstan, the government took immediate steps to introduce containment and mitigation measures. As cases of COVID-19 appeared soon afterwards in Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan, and later in Tajikistan, the governments swiftly responded, instituting emergency measures, empowering law enforcement and medical authorities to implement a broad range of counter-infection mitigation measures to protect public health. Cross-border travel restrictions were imposed. Lockdowns and sheltering-in-place restrictions were imposed in most major cities and curfews were enforced. Routine commercial air flights were canceled or significantly reduced in international and many domestic airports. New levels of visa restrictions were implemented in all the Central Asian countries. The initial infection containment measures were highly successful in curtailing the early spread of Covid-19. But governments immediately confronted a broad range of social and economic difficulties brought on by Covid-19. The sudden interruption of typical earnings and livelihoods for many people, the disruption of commercial supply chains, the cratering of commodity prices and, for Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan in particular, the loss of migrant labor opportunities and remittances, combined with other consequences of Covid-19 to produce a region-wide economic catastrophe. The pandemic called for immediate steps on the part of all governments in the region and focused attention on addressing the long-term social, economic, and even regional political implications.

COVID-19 in Kyrgyzstan: Navigating a way out

“…Kyrgyzstan is a developing country and the national currency value heavily depends on exports of raw materials, gold and income of migrants working abroad. 22,4% of the population live below poverty line [ 7 ] and large number of people are self-employed and are not covered by social protection that official employees have [ 11 ]. The quarantine restrictions implemented by Kyrgyzstan and neighboring countries expect to lead to 4% drop in GDP by the end of 2020.…”

“…This is exacerbated by plummeting business activities in production textile and tourism [ 5 ]. Many financial international institutions lined-up to provide aid, but the scale and scope of the assistance will not suffice to compensate the disastrous economic impact in the long term [ 11 ].…”

Challenges and Responses of Uzbekistan During COVID-19

“…Uzbekistan improved its position in terms of openness and foreign exposure since 2016. The lucky escape from the SARS outbreak in 2003 lead authorities a wrong assumption of having appropriate system in place in case of pandemics (1). The biggest challenge that Uzbekistan faced was lack of preparedness in terms of healthcare responsiveness and agility.…”

“…The first signals of upcoming coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) infection from Wuhan city of China have been received worldwide at the end of December 2020 (1). The world-leading news agencies started monitoring China's situation and in January reported that Wuhan City faced a lockdown and its citizens were required to stay at home to stop the spread of the coronavirus (2) it is reviewed as the most effective measure (3).…”

“…Some researchers believe that previous successful experience in prompt and adequate arrangements for preventing the severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) epidemic in 2003 was a ground for this phenomenon in 2020. However, firmly believing in the effectiveness of measures did not let local medical authorities manage risks accordingly (1). Simultaneously, unlike Tajikistan and Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan did not tempt to hide numbers of infected people or deny the COVID-19 existence in the country (5).…”