“I Fear to be Infected.” How CA Authorities Meet and QuarantineTheir Citizens

The citizens of Central Asian republics quarantined for two weeks criticise their authoritiesfor improper organisation, creation of conditions for mass COVID-19 infection anddeveloping new diseases.

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Citizens of Tajikistan complain about the quarantine conditions

The citizens of Tajikistan who were quarantined said the conditions of their stay were notalways in compliance with sanitary and other requirements.

Tajikistan, according to official data, has none coronavirus cases registered. However, allcitizens arriving from other countries are placed under a two-week quarantine.

Central hospital of Isfana. Photo: Yakub Khalimov

Tajik journalist YakubKhalimov crossed theTajikistan-Kyrgyzstanborder on March 21 andwas placed underquarantine to a centralhospital of Isfana. Over50 people who crossedthe border that daywere quarantinedtogether with him.

They were placed intohospital wards by twoto four people.

“There were three people in a ward. The first nights were cold because we didn’t have warmblankets. However, the food was fine: we had hot food 3 times a day,” Khalimov said.

“I Fear to be Infected.” How CA Authorities Meet and QuarantineTheir Citizens

Photo courtesy of Yakub Khalimov

According to him, the hospital had only 2-3 bathrooms, andhot water was not enough, all WCs were dirty andunkempt. On March 23-24, a few more people werequarantined and over 100 people were there in total.According to Khalimov, the conditions of their stay did notmeet quarantine requirements: people didn’t keep safedistance, they gathered together and played cards.

“This was a dangerous situation. If someone was infected,dozens of people could get infected,” Khalimov said.

According to Khalimov, in Dushanbe, the quarantine requirement to keep safe distance waswell met. Only two people were placed in one ward and they could not get in and out freely.

“In our case, these requirements were not fully met. For example, we had no medical masks,gloves, disinfectants. The staff provided each of us with one mask, washed them andreturned back to us. We feared that we could get infected if we had someone withcoronavirus among us,” he said.

Abuali Mirali, a resident of Shamsiddin Shokhin district, said he was under quarantine for21 days. Mirali returned from Russia to Tajikistan and was placed under quarantine rightaway together with other migrants.

“There were 218 of us, some of us were transported to Bokhtar on five microbuses, andsome were transported to Kulob. To tell the truth, the quarantine conditions were bad. Thewards were fine, the staff washed the wards often, but it was very cold inside. That’s why 32people became sick,” Mirali said.

According to him, people who were quarantined “absolutely” did not practise properhygiene.

“They did not wear masks. The hospital staff did not practise hygiene properly. They woremasks only when they met their chiefs and then they removed them,” Mirali said.

According to him, there was a shortage of medications during the quarantine.

“Some people who had flu had high temperature. We didn’t even have common medications.We complained about it to the health ministry officers and they promised to distributemedications free of charge. However, we didn’t receive any medications and we had toorder them at high prices,” Mirali said.

“I Fear to be Infected.” How CA Authorities Meet and QuarantineTheir Citizens

Some people who were quarantined told us that some doctors failed to meet preventiverequirements. They said some doctors failed to follow the simplest rules – they did not wearmasks and gloves.

Doctor of medicine, virologist Saidbek Sattorov said pandemics emerge suddenly in themajority of cases and quarantine conditions depend on the economic situation andcapacities of the country.

Saidbek Sattorov. Photo: ozodi.org

“Quarantine does not mean all need to be placed intodeluxe suites. What’s most important is to keep thesick or suspect far from healthy people,” Sattorovsaid.

At the same time, he emphasised that people whotested positive should be kept in separate rooms andaccording to the rules. However, if people havesuspected infection, they may be placed into rooms by3-4 people.

However, in the majority of countries, doctors still getinfected with the coronavirus infection despite theirobservation of preventive measures.

According to Saidbek Sattorov, doctors when working with patients, especially withdangerous patients, must meet all the requirements. The coronavirus, which is especiallydangerous, binds doctors to keep to safety requirements when contacting the infectedpatients.

According to the Tajikistan’s ministry of health and social protection, 7,257 people returnedfrom abroad to Tajikistan from February 1 to April 8. Out of them, 5,243 were quarantinedand returned home, 2,014 people are placed into hospitals and health resorts.

Quarantine in Uzbekistan causes contradictory reaction

The Uzbekistanis who were placed under two-week quarantine upon arrival from abroadremember those days differently.

User Teya Tref from Tashkent on her Facebook page told about her experience of stay in theso-called container quarantine centre in Tashkent region, which was opened in late March.

“I Fear to be Infected.” How CA Authorities Meet and QuarantineTheir Citizens

The mobile quarantine zone consisted of several thousand containers modified toaccommodation. Every such room contains four beds, a toilet, a bathroom with a shower. 30duty doctors and 20 supply officers are provided for 500 patients.

“We have everything, an air conditioner, a TV, Uzmobile phone, an electric kettle, bottledwater. We have hot and cold water, yet it contains sand. There are mattresses on beds, bedlinen, pillows, warm blankets, three sets of towels per person, rubber flip-flops,toothbrushes, soap, shampoo, toilet paper, paper towels,” Teya posted.

According to her, the air conditioner did not work so she had to keep herself warm in bedusing bottles with hot water. The administration of the quarantine centre provided her witha heater in five days.

It’s obvious that containers were equipped in a rush and many things were neglected. Forexample, numerous holes were not filled with sealing foam. However, despite thesedeficiencies, the author was satisfied with the quarantine conditions.

“We had a carbohydrate diet – potato, rice, pasta, buckwheat, meat. Three times a day.Sugar, tea, a big pack of cookies. The staff was nice,” she wrote.

According to her, the isolation requirement was observed “strictly and seriously”.

“As to the isolation, we were not permitted to go out of our ‘suite’. Everything was verystrict and serious. We contacted each other via phones, also we communicated by tappingand shouts. The staff did not contact with us. They left our food in disposable containers insmall yard near the container,” Teya wrote.

After a two-week quarantine, she was brought to Tashkent in a bus column and …the driverleft her far from home at night. She had to call her friends to get home. The latter took risksbecause the majority of Tashkent residents were forbidden to use private cars.

A resident of Tashkent, Grishan Danielyan, upon arrival from Moscow was quarantined in acamp for 16 days, where he “wouldn’t want to get back”.

On his Facebook page, Danielyan wrote all passengers were deprived of their phones andpassports at the airport. He didn’t like that 4 people were placed into one container (inaverage).

“It means that if one of four people had coronavirus, all four people would get infected.

“I Fear to be Infected.” How CA Authorities Meet and QuarantineTheir Citizens

Fun,” Danielyan wrote.

Also, he didn’t like that containers were not ready for operation, some didn’t have water,some didn’t have electricity. According to him, medical workers were competent andcompassionate, while the organisers were incompetent and caddish.

“A family was placed under the quarantine from the hospital under false pretences. Theywere promised to be transported home. Thus, people were tested for coronavirus and werepromised to be taken home as their tests were negative. However, they were brought to thequarantine zone just in case. They were locked in a container…” he shared.

Also, Danielyan complained about poor management of the quarantine in other similarinstitutions. Thus, according to him, his fellow nationals who came from Moscow on March24 were placed into the health resort at Nazarbek. However, there was no quarantine in factand two weeks later they were sent to the container camp for the same period.

According to numerous stories of eye witnesses who were quarantined, the conditions ofstay and attitude of the staff varied depending on the place and even shift. Human factoralso played a significant role in the quarantine organisation.

Quarantined patients in Energetik health resort complainedabout bad conditions. Photo: ozodlik.org

For example, this can be seen in the quarantine atEnergetik health resort at Kibraisky district ofTashkent region. The first group of fellow nationalswith 20 citizens of Russia were met personally byhealth minister of Uzbekistan Alisher Shadmanov.The chef of the resort never cooked mealsrepeatedly for 14 days and cooked a celebratorydinner in honour of the International Women’s Day.Svetlana Kim told about it.

In the same health resort, according to independent journalist Aleksey Volosevich, thepassengers of Dubai-Tashkent flight rebelled. They allegedly complained about badconditions of stay and that they were not released despite negative coronavirus tests aftertwo weeks of quarantine. As a result, seven people were sentenced to 15 days ofadministrative arrest for violation of article 54 of the Code of Administrative Responsibilityof Uzbekistan regarding rules of anti-epidemic measures.

“I Fear to be Infected.” How CA Authorities Meet and QuarantineTheir Citizens

Situation in Kazakhstan

“I felt some weakness just before departure from Istanbul. I had a sore throat, cough andrunning nose. But I thought these symptoms were because of the climate change and theflight, so I thought I would be taken to the hospital immediately,” a Kazakhstani journalistwho returned from the UK on the London-Istanbul-Almaty-Nur-Sultan flight on March 10told.

Upon arrival to Almaty, the passengers were checked by a single thermal imager and had tofill in the questionnaire and specify the route in the last two weeks. In Nur-Sultan airport,they didn’t have such device.

“I arrived at night and wasn’t checked: no thermal imager, no questionnaires. We arrivedand dispersed. I went home and went to bed as I thought it would be better in the morning.However, I didn’t get well and I called 103 to call the emergency, which came 50 minutesafter my message,” the girl said.

The ambulance service asked how she felt, about her route, checked her temperature andthen said she would be hospitalised and tested for COVID-19. She spent next week underquarantine in the City Centre for Phthisiopulmonology, which is seven kilometres away fromNur-Sultan.

Photo: CABAR.asia

At first, the girl was placed into a ward for two, and then the second bed was removed. As

“I Fear to be Infected.” How CA Authorities Meet and QuarantineTheir Citizens

they explained to her, those people that arrived in the same plane were placed together.And the rest were placed by one.

During the quarantine, the girl was monitored by doctors, and when she tested negative forvirus she was discharged. When she was discharged, the guard told her a man wanted toescape a couple of days ago but was caught. The territory was monitored by the patrol andsecurity was tightened.

Today hotels and resorts are organised for the accommodation of quarantined people andfor the stay of doctors. Complaints about the quarantine conditions were mainly from thetowns of the country, and also from the capital.

On March 22, 577 passengers of the Dubai-Nur-Sultan flight were placed under observationat one of the designated hotels. People were shocked by the conditions of accommodationand wondered where the money allocated by the state was wasted.

Photo: inbusiness.kz

However, the people that arrived from abroad complained to local media about the cold andinsanitary conditions in places of their quarantine and feared they could develop newdiseases.

“I Fear to be Infected.” How CA Authorities Meet and QuarantineTheir Citizens

Today, Kazakhstan has 1,821 people under quarantine, 6,608 people are self-isolated athome, and over 21 thousand tests were taken.

Revise the priorities

On March 24, the ministry of health of Kazakhstan launched a new rubric on Facebook“Health ministry announces”, where the head of the agency, Yelzhan Birtanov, announcedthat the aggregate capacity of Kazakhstan laboratories was four thousand tests per day.Later on, the chair of the health ministry’s Committee of Quality Control and Safety ofGoods and Services, Lyudmila Byurabekova, said that the personnel reserve of medicalworkers was sufficient for all the cities and towns of Kazakhstan.

“Both cities [Nur-Sultan and Almaty] are coping well with the people who are being placedunder quarantine. The sanitary-epidemiological service of Nur-Sultan and Almaty involvesstaff from other regions who are on duty at checkpoints to investigate the epidemiologicalsituation,” Byurabekova said.

According to her, Chinese test kits are being used. The country has just received 60thousand test kits and is planning to buy 150 thousand kits more. The number of infectedpeople is increasing every day, and the main focal points of infection are located in Nur-Sultan and Almaty.

Kazakhstan is fighting lethal infections not for the first time. In 1905–1906, the country hadthe plague epidemic. The second wave of the dangerous disease took lives of hundreds ofpeople in 1923-1924 and after the Great Patriotic war.

In 1914, a central plague laboratory was opened in Uralsk. The authorities of the countrylaunched the widespread deratisation campaign and the disease subsided gradually.

Photo courtesy of Marat Mamaev

According to the healthcare analyst MaratMamaev, the country had a stable epidemiologicalsituation in regard to dangerous infectious diseasesand it helped to contain the spread of coronavirus.

“So far, we have a stable epidemiological situationwith these diseases thanks to the system ofcontainment and prevention of highly infectiousdiseases. It has lulled our vigilance. We cannotignore both the market trends and the disease

“I Fear to be Infected.” How CA Authorities Meet and QuarantineTheir Citizens

trends,” Mamaev said.

Expert in healthcare Ali Nurgozhaev also noted that the government needed to provideunhindered access to haemodialysis in current emergency, ensure access to workers topharmaceutical plants, transportation of laboratory biomaterials, etc.

Photo courtesy of Ali Nurgozhaev

“The stock of resources in case of intensive epidemics is notavailable. As a result, we have a risk of deaths because of theshortage of artificial ventilators, deficit of basic protectiveequipment for doctors. We need to equip and protect our medicalstaff, ensure quality further training of doctors on infectionissues. We need to revise our priorities,” Nurgozhaev said.

Mamaev has the same opinion. He noted that regulatoryinstruments to be used in emergency were not developed inadvance and they need to be developed now based oninternational experience and with participation of internationalorganisations and local analysts.

Kyrgyzstan: Accustomed to cataclysms

Oibek Aitbaev arrived in Kyrgyzstan from Germany on March 16 and was immediatelyplaced under two-week quarantine to the former American military base Gansi in the Manasairport.

“The conditions are OK. There’s a bed, shower, hot water, toilets, washing machine, afridge, a water dispenser, an air conditioner in the suite. There are 2-3 people placed intothe suite. Meals three times a day,” he shared.

“I Fear to be Infected.” How CA Authorities Meet and QuarantineTheir Citizens

“I Fear to be Infected.” How CA Authorities Meet and QuarantineTheir Citizens

“I Fear to be Infected.” How CA Authorities Meet and QuarantineTheir Citizens

“I Fear to be Infected.” How CA Authorities Meet and QuarantineTheir Citizens

Photo courtesy of O.Aitbaev

Meanwhile, there were many complaints posted in social networks and media of Kyrgyzstanabout the conditions of observation. One Kyrgyzstani woman wrote on Facebook that thereare only outdoor toilets at the Gansi, but they are not accessible at night, so she wasprovided with a bucket.

On March 19, a young man referred to a news agency and said his mother who came backfrom Moscow was placed under quarantine with poor conditions. The place of observationwas Gansi.

In addition to the former airbase, the people are also placed under quarantine to thehospital of Belovodsk, which is 43 kilometres away from Bishkek. According to a Bishkekresident, Kamila Kozhokmatova, she was placed in a ward with eight other people.

“I Fear to be Infected.” How CA Authorities Meet and QuarantineTheir Citizens

“There were two wards with eight women in each and one toilet for all. I have had systemiclupus erythematosus for fifteen years. I cannot be placed into one ward with other people – Ican catch not only coronavirus but also any disease. It can have a deplorable outcome,”Kozhokmatova said (as cited on Kloop.kg).

According to Tolo Isakov, deputy minister of health of Kyrgyzstan, laboratories that makecoronavirus tests are opening across the country now.

“All virologists and laboratory assistants are well prepared. We have enough quantity of testkits, consumables. All services of Emergencies Ministry and Ministry of Interior Affairs areready to any course of events. Today, we have 2,290 beds available for observation,” hesaid.

However, media expert on health issues and former employee of health ministry ElenaBayalinova said that the infrastructure of Kyrgyzstan has become so obsolete that it cannotfight the infection.

“I’ve seen these hospitals in Suzak and Nookat (districts where first coronavirus cases weredetected – author’s note). These hospitals are old and were built back in the Soviet period,at best,” she said.

She noted that despite the organisational work done, medical staff does not have necessaryequipment available – doctors have to attend patients without masks.

However, evidence-based medicine expert Bermet Baryktabasova said Kyrgyzstan canfight coronavirus despite limited resources as it has repeatedly coped with emergencies.

“Our people are responsive and accustomed to cataclysms. Such unexpected severe timesand deficit of resources have been in our country before. For example, the revolution andthe June 2010 events, when we had many wounded and sick people; Dacha-Su, when theairplane slammed into a village. And every time our society manages to self-mobilise, self-organise and survive,” she said.

Moreover, she said the authorities have problems with management, making coordinateddecisions and systemic measures, communications and public relations, broadcasting andpropaganda of correct information.

They have failed to calculate the demand for personal protective equipment, medicalproducts; the call centre that answers the calls and provides information to the people has

“I Fear to be Infected.” How CA Authorities Meet and QuarantineTheir Citizens

not been organised. There is a shortage of ambulance cars.

She noted the emphasis should be placed on correct awareness-raising campaign,considered restrictive measures, personal hygiene, self-isolation and responsibility foroneself and for one’s family. First of all, all medical workers of the country should besupported.

This article was prepared as part of the Giving Voice, Driving Change – from the Borderland to the SteppesProject.

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