Towards a post-COVID world: Challenges and progress of recovery in Kazakhstan

Kazakhstan announced the first cases of COVID-19 in March 2020. Within a span of a few months, the pandemic ravaged all regions affecting vulnerable populations due to limited access to healthcare services and co-morbidities. To minimize the spread of the pandemic, the government announced the implementation of containment measures such as quarantine, movement restrictions, and lockdowns among others. The collateral effect of the pandemic has disrupted economic and learning activities pushing several people below the poverty line. The pandemic revealed the weakness of healthcare including the acute shortage of essential medicines and lack of hospital beds. This calls for stringent measures to revive the economy and mitigate the reeling effect of the pandemic. As a result, Kazakhstan commenced COVID-19 vaccination efforts in February 2021. To date, about 47.8% are fully vaccinated pushing Kazakhstan closer to achieving herd immunity at the 60% threshold. However, the country faces challenges such as vaccine hesitancy and uncertainty surrounding vaccine effectiveness against new variants of SARS-CoV2, among others. This paper aims to explore the health and socioeconomic challenges caused by COVID-19 in Kazakhstan, control strategies, vaccination campaigns and progress towards herd immunity.