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| - Kazakhstan's president on Monday criticised top officials for their coronavirus response and ordered the return of lockdown measures as the Central Asian country struggles to control a surge in infections. President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev instructed a state commission to decide within two days which fresh anti-virus measures to impose after hospital staff warned they were running out of beds. Oil-rich Kazakhstan has seen infections surge in recent weeks after an unpopular two-month lockdown was lifted in mid-May. During a government meeting held by video link, Tokayev singled out mayors in the three largest cities and the deputy prime minister among other officials for "unsatisfactory" work containing the disease. He also called on authorities to ensure the availability of medicine for a "second wave" in the next five days and expand the number of hospital beds available nationally by 50 percent. Total cases in Kazakhstan stood at just over 11,000 at the beginning of June, with around half of patients recovered. Infections have soared to over 21,000 as of Monday, not including more than 16,000 asymptomatic cases that authorities began counting separately earlier this month. A total of 183 fatalities have been recorded, while about 13,000 people have recovered. Top health officials have insisted the country has enough beds for virus patients even as hospital chiefs throughout the country sound the alarm over medical facilities nearing full capacity. One hospital director in the northwestern town of Uralsk resigned this month complaining that her facility had lacked enough hospital beds since May. A key laboratory on Monday said it would stop paid-for-tests after being put under strain from high demand. Last week saw long queues for coronavirus tests and at pharmacies in the capital Nur-Sultan and the largest city of Almaty. This month Aleksei Tsoi replaced Yelzhan Birtanov as health minister after Birtanov was hospitalised with the virus. Former president Nursultan Nazarbayev, 79, also tested positive for coronavirus, but is not suffering symptoms, his office said. dr-cr/jbr/pma
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