Kyrgyzstan reports 179 COVID-19 cases, 42,325 in total

Bishkek, Aug. 19, 2020 / Kabar /. Kyrgyzstan added 179 new COVID-19 cases on Wednesday, raising the tally of infections to 42,325. Of the total number of infected 3,045 are medical workers, including 7 new cases, Ainura Akmatova, the head of the public health care department of the country’s Health Ministry said at online news briefing. She also reported that 312 COVID-19 patients have recovered over the past day, bringing the total recoveries to 35,197. One more virus-related death recorded in the previous 24 hours, now the death toll makes 1,054. The Ministry of Health of Kyrgyzstan has revised statistics on deaths among COVID-19 patients, according to the press service of the ministry. Earlier statistics on deaths were based on the presence of a positive PCR test for COVID-19 and signs of community-acquired pneumonia, this led to a distortion in the number of deaths, it said. In this regard, a special commission was created to study the causes of death among patients with COVID-19. The commission, having studied the experience of other countries, using an operational analysis of mortality for 7 months of 2019-2020, as well as based on the International Methodological Recommendations for the certification and coding of COVID-19 as a cause of death, came to the conclusion that in 437 cases or 29 percent of COVID- 19 was not the main cause of death, the ministry said. Among 437 cases in 358 cases ( 82% ) the cause of death was coronary heart disease, in 24 cases (5.6%) - acute myocardial infarction, in 13 cases (3.1%) - acute cerebrovascular accident, in 10 cases (2.5%) - acute renal failure, in 32 cases (6.8 %)- other reasons ( suicides, oncological diseases, etc.). Also, during the analysis, it was revealed that information on 8 deaths was recorded twice. Earlier it was reported that since the beginning of the pandemic, 1,498 people, or 3.5 percent, have died.