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In response to the COVID-19 pandemic, each of the five Central Asian states (Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, and Turkmenistan) took notably different approaches to presenting coronavirus-related information on the internet through official websites. To understand these differences, this chapter engages with literature that looks at how states use websites for self-promotion, what shapes the decision-making of those elites in control of a state, and who sanctions the creation of those websites. Pairing a quantitative presentation of these websites' qualities with an analysis of text and images, the differences among these coronavirus websites are sketched out before they are situated in the political circumstances of the states which designed them. This analysis finds that coronavirus websites developed by Central Asian states are not solely depoliticized platforms for disseminating information to the public, but, rather, are inexorably linked to the concerns and objectives of state elites;in turn these elite agendas are reflected in each state's online response to the pandemic. © The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2022.
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The aim - to assess some medical and social aspects of the epidemic process during the first wave of a new coronavirus infectious disease - COVID-19 in the Republic of Tajikistan. Material and methods. The retrospective study was conducted on the basis of an epidemiological analysis of official statistics as part of the epidemiological surveillance of COVID-19 from April 2020 to April 2021. Results and discussion. At the beginning of April 2021, a total of 13 308 cases of COVID-19 were registered, of which the proportion of recovered was 99.3% (13 218 cases), and the number of cases with a fatal outcome was 0.68% (90 cases;the average age of the deceased was 62.3+/-0.07 years). The peak of infection during the first wave occurred in May and June 2020, when the average daily increase was 97 people. For 2 months of the epidemic in the republic, 44.6% of the total number of patients with COVID-19 became infected, and the number of deaths reached 52 people or 57.7%. Among the patients, men prevailed (65%). The largest number of deaths (76.7%;n=69) was among older people with comorbidities (diabetes mellitus, cardiovascular disease, chronic lung disease, metabolic syndrome, etc.). An analysis of the age structure showed that the main proportion of cases fell on the age group of 40-60 years (42.6%). It was found that a significant proportion of patients with COVID-19 was detected in the Sughd region (33.0%) and Dushanbe (30.1%). Conclusion. The COVID-19 pandemic showed that the national healthcare system of the Republic of Tajikistan was not sufficiently prepared for such a development of the COVID-19 epidemic process. There was an acute shortage of medical and preventive specialists in the republic. Given the current situation in the Republic of Tajikistan, within the framework of epidemiological surveillance, the features of the course of the COVID-19 epidemic process were analyzed, adequate emergency measures were developed and proposed to limit the spread of the virus and reduce the negative impact of COVID-19 on public health. The number of beds has been reasonably expanded, the capacity of the laboratory service has been increased, mass vaccination of the population has been started according to epidemic indications.Copyright © 2022 Geotar Media Publishing Group
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The aim - study the main causes and factors that led to the death of patients with pneumonia from a new coronavirus infection (COVID-19) in a hospital setting. Material and methods. Analysis of 84 case histories with fatal outcomes, as well as postmortem examination of 6 deceased patients. Results and discussion. Comparative analysis of overall mortality rates by nosology among the population for the period 2019-2020 (n=33 537;36 299) shows that in 2020 the number of patients who died from respiratory diseases increased 2.1 times or 106%, from infectious and parasitic diseases - 1.3 times or 30.8%. The first case of infection with a new coronavirus infection (COVID-19) among citizens of the Republic of Tajikistan was registered on April 30, 2020, it was then that a quarantine restrictions was announced in the country. The peak of infection in Tajikistan fell in mid-May and the first ten days of June 2020, when from 80 to 210 patients were registered per day. In Tajikistan, since January 10, 2021, no cases of COVID-19 have been officially registered. As of January 30, 2021, the number of people infected with COVID-19 in the country was 13 308, of which 13 218 (99.3%) people were cured, 90 (0.68%) people died. The number of cases of pneumonia in the first 10 months of 2020 compared to 2019 increased from 12 802 to 18 504 people, or by 5702, and the number of deaths - from 129 to 291, that is, 2.3 times or 125.6%. At the same time, 10 606 cases of COVID-19 associated with pneumonia were registered in Tajikistan during this period, which amounted to 57.3% of the total number of cases. An analysis of the history of the deceased showed that in 4.3% of cases the age of the deceased was from 30 to 39 years, in 30.4% - from 40 to 60 years and in 65.3% - over 61 years. Conclusion. The analysis of deaths among the population of Tajikistan shows that in 2020 there was an increase in the mortality rate, the incidence of seasonal pneumonia and the number of patients with COVID-19 associated with pneumonia.Copyright © 2021 Sovero Press Publishing House. All rights reserved.
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Despite all efforts of the world community, the COVID-19 pandemic remains one of the main epidemiological challenges of our time. Even with its widespread distribution, the infection may have certain local features due to social, geographic, and climatic factors. Objective(s): to study collective immunity to SARS-CoV-2 in the population of the Republic of Tajikistan. A cross-sectional, randomized study of herd immunity was carried out according to a program developed by Rospotrebnadzor and the St. Petersburg Pasteur Institute, taking into account WHO recommendations. The ethics committees of the corresponding entities approved the study: Tajik Ministry of Health and Social Protection;and the St. Petersburg Pasteur Institute (Russia). Based on questionnaire results, 4,022 people were selected, representing 0.15% (95% CI: 0.14-0.15) of the total population randomized by age and region. In subsequent laboratory analysis, 3682 people took part. The distribution and quantitative content of antibodies (Abs) to viral nucleocapsid (N Ag) and receptor binding domain (RBD Ag) were determined by ELISA. When questioned, a history of SARS-CoV-2 vaccination was indicated by 69.7% (95% CI: 68.2-71.2) of the volunteer cohort. Vector vaccines were most frequently used (50.6%;95% CI: 48.7-52.5), with whole-virion inactivated preparations in second place (23.0%: 95% CI: 21.4-26.6) and mRNA vaccines in third place (21.0%;95% CI:19.4-22.6). The cohort (n = 3682) featured 27.5% men and 72.5% women. The overall seroprevalence was 98.5% (95% CI: 97.7-99.2) in men and 99.4% (95% CI: 99.0-99.6) in women (differences statistically insignificant). Overall seroprevalence in the cohort was 99.2% (95% CI: 98.8-99.4) and ranged from 97.2 to 100% in certain subgroups. Asymptomatic seropositivity in the whole cohort was 98.4% (95% CI: 97.6-99.1). As a result of a mandatory vaccination program introduced in Tajikistan under a COVID-19 Emergency Project, the level of herd immunity among vaccinated individuals reached 99.5% (95% CI: 99.1-99.7), which is similar to the level reached in the cohort as a whole. The epidemic situation that developed in Tajikistan by mid-March 2022 was characterized by an almost absolute level of herd immunity, as evidenced by an absence of detected overt COVID-19 cases since the end of February (2022).Copyright © Popova A.Yu. et al., 2023 The article can be used under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.
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Remittance inflows are now the largest source of external financing to developing countries, but little research has yet firmly established the effect of remittances on household welfare. We investigate the case of Tajikistan, one of the most heavily remittance-dependent countries in the world. We use a panel dataset collected nationwide and employ an instrumental variable estimation to confirm a positive relationship between receiving remittances and household welfare after correcting for endogeneity. Moreover, we find that the effect of remittances on household spending is more pronounced in households whose head is male, older, and/or less educated. Then, we combine our estimated coefficients with the projected decline of remittance inflows as a result of the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) outbreak and show the pandemic's adverse effect on household spending per capita. © 2022 Asian Development Bank.
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By all accounts, Tajikistan was ill prepared to handle the novel coronavirus pandemic. Decades of neglect and mismanagement had critically weakened the country's public health and welfare systems. Surprisingly, the government of President Emomali Rahmon managed to muddle through the crisis, minimising both the death toll and public resentment towards the authorities. This article examines state policies in 2020– 21 tackling the medical, political and socio-economic aspects of the pandemic. Using critical narrative analysis of official communication data, it argues that control of the information space, nationalism, emergency budget measures, foreign aid, and temporary and selective engagement with civil society were essential for the authoritarian regime's performance and survival. © 2022, New Zealand Asian Studies Society (NZASIA). All rights reserved.
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The study contains data analysis on living conditions, information about COVID-19, housing conditions, health status and practice of testing labor migrants from Tajikistan, Kyrgyzstan and Uzbekistan in Russia for HIV and tuberculosis (TB) in the context of the pandemic by gender and country of citizenship. The empirical basis of estimates was made up of data from the 2020 survey of 900 labor migrants from Tajikistan, Kyrgyzstan and Uzbekistan living in Russia. The data analysis showed that the COVID-19 pandemic has worsened situation of the majority families of labor migrants from Tajikistan, Kyrgyzstan and Uzbekistan in Russia with wage reduction and psychological stress becoming the most significant difficulties (especially for female labor migrants). The Internet and online social networks were the main sources of information about COVID-19. Less than half of legally employed labor migrants from Kyrgyzstan used Compulsory health insurance (CHI) certificate, and they were less likely to undergo fluorographic examinations and HIV testing compared to labor migrants from Tajikistan and Uzbekistan (especially men). Most of the labor migrants from Central Asia in Russia did not pay enough attention to prevention and health maintenance and even deteriorated their health overextending themselves in Russia, as in the pre-COVID-19 period. Health problems either have developed or worsened, including due to unfavorable housing conditions. The study shows the need for improving access to and quality of medical services for labor migrants from Central Asia in Russia and modernizing mechanisms for informing migrants, including through digital environment and social networks. Monitoring of future changes in migration policy with due regard to new experience in migration management during the pandemic seems promising.
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The COVID-19 pandemic has posed severe restrictions on daily mobility for people globally. We use a monthly household panel dataset that covers a period both before and after the outbreak began to examine the impact of COVID-19 on daily mobility and household welfare in Tajikistan. The feature of our dataset is that it contains information on daily mobility for those traveling by vehicle along with their travel purposes. We provide several new findings. First, the impact of the pandemic on daily mobility was limited in Tajikistan, in contrast with the evidence from other countries. The pandemic discouraged motorized travel for family-related purposes in all income groups while keeping other vehicle travel intact for reasons such as work and shopping under the country's lenient travel restrictions. Second, the effects of concerns about the pandemic were not uniform across all vehicle travel when different purposes are taken into account. People who were very concerned about the pandemic were more likely to refrain from motorized travel for family-related purposes. Third, refraining from travel for family purposes exacerbated food insecurity, implying that the safety net provided by family members and relatives was hampered by the limited ability to travel during the pandemic.
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Objective: To assess the global epidemic of Coronavirus disease 2019(COVID-19)in January 2022 and the risk of importation.
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Healthy life expectancy (HALE) measures the quality of life a person expects to live. This study aims to find out the most associated factors of HALE at birth globally. The data of 212 countries came from the World Health Organization, Worldometer, World Bank, and United Nations. HALE at birth is considered as the dependent variable;and social, economic, and health factors are considered as the predictors. Descriptive statistics, Pearson’s correlation analysis, and multiple linear regression models were used as the statistical tools to reach the objective. The results revealed that HALE is found lower in Central African Republic and higher in Singapore. The highest death rate due to coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID 19), alcohol consumption rate, human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) prevalence rate, and average household size are found in Nicaragua, Moldova Republic, Eswatini, and Senegal, respectively. And the lowest recovery rate from COVID 19, and universal health coverage (UHC) service index are found in Tajikistan, and Montserrat, respectively. The recovery rate from COVID 19, UHC service index, gross domestic product (GDP), current health expenditure, tuberculosis (TB) incidence, tobacco smoking, HIV prevalence rate and average household size were significantly correlated with the HALE at birth. The multiple linear regression models identified that the UHC service index, alcohol consumption rate, HIV prevalence rate and average household size are the most associate factors of HALE at birth globally. Therefore, the necessary steps should be taken to maximize the UHC service index, and to minimize the alcohol consumption rate, HIV prevalence rate and average household size for increasing the HALE at birth in the world.
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CONTEXT: In the early 2000s, palliative care was largely unknown in the Eurasian region. For a period of twenty years starting around 2002, Open Society Foundations (OSF) supported palliative care pioneers in the region to establish palliative care services, train health providers, and advocate for the integration into health services. OBJECTIVES: To report on the development of palliative care in Armenia, Georgia, Moldova, Tajikistan and Ukraine during the period 2017-2021 and explore the impact of OSF's sustained funding for palliative care in these countries. Activities and developments to 2017 were described in country-specific papers in 2018. METHODS: A retrospective case study analysis was used to examine how palliative care developed in each country. We reviewed theories of change, funding and advocacy strategies, implemented activities and interventions, and their outputs and outcomes, and compared them to legal, policy and service developments in practice. RESULTS: By the mid-2010s, each country had laid the foundations for rolling out palliative care-basic policies and guidelines were in place; palliative care medications were available; key health providers were trained; and training capacity and models of care had been created-but service availability remained limited. In subsequent years, advocates increasingly embraced public advocacy to hold governments accountable for meeting their commitments and to include palliative care in universal health insurance. By 2021, Armenia, Moldova, and Ukraine had significantly scaled up service availability and palliative care was firmly embedded in universal health coverage in Moldova and Ukraine whereas progress in Georgia and Tajikistan was more modest. CONCLUSION: Experiences in these countries suggest that a strategy that initially emphasizes training, technical assistance, and engagement to create the building blocks for palliative care combined with or followed by public advocacy and campaigning to demand roll out of services can result in significant advances. Continued progress, however, is not guaranteed, especially considering the COVID-19 pandemic and dwindling donor support.
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COVID-19 , Hospice and Palliative Care Nursing , Humans , Palliative Care , Pandemics , Retrospective StudiesABSTRACT
Central Asian (CA) countries (Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Turkmenistan, Tajikistan, Uzbekistan) are assumed to be one of the most attractive tourist destinations since this particular geographical location holds immense potential in tourism products. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the flourishing tourism sector of these countries has been immensely affected. The aim of this study is to examine the impact of Central Asian tourists' risk attitudes toward traveling during the COVID-19 pandemic through consideration of sociodemographic characteristics. The research was conducted during January through April 2021 based on a sample of 966 respondents via an online questionnaire. In the survey, risks are divided into four main categories: health, psychological, financial and travel destination. Nominal regression was used to identify the way in which risk perception affected travel intentions during COVID-19 and the research findings indicate that Central Asian tourists' risk perception has done so. Hygiene, disinfection and a reliable health system in destinations (21%) will be leading factors in future travel.
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In response to the request by the Government of the Republic of Tajikistan on 15 May 2020, FAO and WFP carried out an abridged approach to the Crop and Food Security Assessment Mission (CFSAM) for the country. After thorough planning and preparation, considering movement restrictions due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the Mission estimated the 2020 production of the major food crops and the import requirements for the 2020/21 marketing year and assessed the overall food security situation in the country. After reviewing and collecting existing information in the capital, Dushanbe, the Mission was in the field between 6 and 31 July 2020 and between 15 and 25 September 2020 to estimate the production of first and second season crops and to assess households' food security.
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Despite the declining hunger in Central Asia, food insecurity remains an important issue due to the dry climate. Taking Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan, Turkmenistan, and Tajikistan as examples, this study assesses their land-water resources carrying capacity in 1999, 2009, and 2018, on the premise that agricultural water and farmland are spatially matched based on the “buckets effect”, using the ecological footprint and water footprint methods. Results show the following: (1) the total farmland area in Central Asia is sufficient to achieve food self-sufficiency;the available farmland area is 2.45 times that of the farmland required for self-sufficiency in 1999, which decreased to 1.71 times in 2009, but slightly increased to 1.92 times in 2018. Specifically, Kazakhstan maintains a surplus of more than 15 × 106 ha in farmland, while the other 4 countries could not achieve self-sufficiency. (2) The water resources pressure rises;the available agricultural water resource (AAWR) in Central Asia is 3.07 times that of the water demand for agricultural irrigation (WDAI), and 3.06 times that of the water demand for irrigation and environmental purification (WDIEP) in 1999, which decreased to 1.69 times of WDAI and to 1.60 times of WDIEP in 2018. Tajikistan has the highest level of water surplus, followed by Kyrgyzstan and Kazakhstan. Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan do not have enough water to sustain agricultural production. (3) The trend of land-water resources carrying capacity declines in Central Asia. In 1999, 2009, and 2018, the land-water resources could support the population’s food demand in this region when only considering farmland matched with WDAI. However, the population carrying capacity deficit would emerge if we considered the matching farmland with WDIEP.
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The paper presents a systemic and participatory assessment approach and scrutinizes how methodological changes necessitated during the Covid-19 pandemic implicated the process and its outcomes. The approach was applied in rural Tajikistan to evaluate changes effected by a development project that promoted the enhancement of biodiversity and ecosystem services in agrarian landscapes. The central building block of the assessment consisted of participatory workshops in 2018 and 2020 with farmers and other stakeholders to develop a systemic knowledge map and to evaluate the promoted strategies based on local expertise. The methodological basis was MARISCO (adaptive MAnagement of vulnerability and RISk at COnservation sites), a holistic and participatory approach to ecosystem-based assessment and management that requires well-trained facilitators. While the activities in 2018 could be implemented as planned, major changes in the work plan were necessary in 2020 due to severe travel restrictions and social distancing rules. Conducting virtual workshops was not possible, as it would have excluded key stakeholders from the process. Instead of conducting a comprehensive assessment workshop guided by two German MARISCO facilitators as originally planned, a series of short and small workshops could be realized. These workshops were facilitated by Tajik scientists after receiving virtual training from their German colleagues. Although it was possible to bring the assessment to a satisfactory conclusion, the methodological changes revealed significant drawbacks. Radical simplifications of the methods were necessary that led to reduced depth of the assessment and missed learning opportunities for participants. Limited experience in workshop guidance by the new facilitators posed challenges to the participatory process and the quality of its outcomes. While the adapted method created training effects that would otherwise have been missed, it also put additional pressure on the capacities of local partners. Our experience during the pandemic offers valuable lessons learned for future applications of systemic-participatory approaches. Whereas, a complete shift to remote applications is problematic, there is a need to put greater emphasis on capacitating local partners. Methodological trade-offs are necessary for partially remote working processes, but principles of participation and systemic thinking should not be compromised. Copyright © 2021 Spies, Schick, Karomatov, Bakokhoja, Zikriyokhon, Jobirov, Bloch and Ibisch.
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The COVID-19 pandemic has triggered a global public health response. In this research paper, the ANN approach was applied to analyze COVID-19 cases in Tajikistan. This study is based on monthly new cases of COVID-19 in Tajikistan for the period 1 January 2020 – 25 March 2021. The out-of-sample forecast covers the period 26 March 2021 – 31 July 2021. The residuals and forecast evaluation criteria (Error, MSE and MAE) of the model applied in this paper indicate that the model is stable. The COVID-19 pandemic, as revealed by our forecasts is still and will remain significantly low in Tajikistan, for the next 4 months (that is, April 2021 – July 2021). The government should continue to implement control and preventive measures including vaccinations in order to save as many lives as possible.
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BACKGROUND: SARS-CoV-2, the virus that caused the global COVID-19 pandemic, has severely impacted Central Asia; in spring 2020, high numbers of cases and deaths were reported in this region. The second wave of the COVID-19 pandemic is currently breaching the borders of Central Asia. Public health surveillance is necessary to inform policy and guide leaders; however, existing surveillance explains past transmissions while obscuring shifts in the pandemic, increases in infection rates, and the persistence of the transmission of COVID-19. OBJECTIVE: The goal of this study is to provide enhanced surveillance metrics for SARS-CoV-2 transmission that account for weekly shifts in the pandemic, including speed, acceleration, jerk, and persistence, to better understand the risk of explosive growth in each country and which countries are managing the pandemic successfully. METHODS: Using a longitudinal trend analysis study design, we extracted 60 days of COVID-19-related data from public health registries. We used an empirical difference equation to measure the daily number of cases in the Central Asia region as a function of the prior number of cases, level of testing, and weekly shift variables based on a dynamic panel model that was estimated using the generalized method of moments approach by implementing the Arellano-Bond estimator in R. RESULTS: COVID-19 transmission rates were tracked for the weeks of September 30 to October 6 and October 7-13, 2020, in Central Asia. The region averaged 11,730 new cases per day for the first week and 14,514 for the second week. Infection rates increased across the region from 4.74 per 100,000 persons to 5.66. Russia and Turkey had the highest 7-day moving averages in the region, with 9836 and 1469, respectively, for the week of October 6 and 12,501 and 1603, respectively, for the week of October 13. Russia has the fourth highest speed in the region and continues to have positive acceleration, driving the negative trend for the entire region as the largest country by population. Armenia is experiencing explosive growth of COVID-19; its infection rate of 13.73 for the week of October 6 quickly jumped to 25.19, the highest in the region, the following week. The region overall is experiencing increases in its 7-day moving average of new cases, infection, rate, and speed, with continued positive acceleration and no sign of a reversal in sight. CONCLUSIONS: The rapidly evolving COVID-19 pandemic requires novel dynamic surveillance metrics in addition to static metrics to effectively analyze the pandemic trajectory and control spread. Policy makers need to know the magnitude of transmission rates, how quickly they are accelerating, and how previous cases are impacting current caseload due to a lag effect. These metrics applied to Central Asia suggest that the region is trending negatively, primarily due to minimal restrictions in Russia.