Tajik authorities continue insisting that there are no new cases of the novel coronavirus (COVID-19) in the country and the Health Ministry says that all those now in hospitals have seasonal pneumonia.
The health officials state that no laboratory has detected positive tests for coronavirus yet. “No new cases of COVID-10 have been registered in the country yet,” an official with the Ministry of Health and Social Protection of the Population (MoHSPP) told Asia-Plus on June 15.
The Health Ministry’s statement about the absence of new cases of COVID-19 in the country sounds against the background of messages from social network users the infection of their relatives and friends, and even about coronavirus-related deaths.
The MoHSPP press center, however, denies reports about positive tests for coronavirus detected by private labs as baseless.
“To-date, no lab in the country has detected new positive tests for COVID-19 and the Health Ministry has not been notified,” the MoHSPP press center added.
Meanwhile, health workers said at the end of last week on the basis of anonymity about new cases of COVID-19 in the country.
Several labs carrying out PRC-based tests said they have detected several cases of the coronavirus infection daily in recent days.
For example, representative of the Dushanbe-based private lab “Diamed” told Asia-Plus on June 8 on condition of anonymity that they detected about 100 cases of COVID-19 daily over the past two weeks.
A large number of residents of Dushanbe are tested for COVID-19 at the “Diamed” lab.
A representative of another lab also confirmed that they have detected several cases of COVID-19 daily over the past two week.
According to him, all labs carrying out PRC-based tests every day send reports to the Health Ministry and immediately notify as soon as COVID-19 is detected. The Health Ministry did not include this positive result in its data on the COVID-19 situation, however.
Some sources said the major part of patients with suspected COVID-19 diagnoses were admitted to City Health Center No 1 (the hospital in Dushanbe’s Pervy Sovetsky neighborhood unit). Doctors working with this hospital have confirmed this information.
“Patients with a mild form of the disease are prescribed treatment and sent home. People with more severe symptoms are admitted to the therapy department of the hospital. If their condition worsens, they are transferred to intensive care,” a doctor working with City Health Center No 1 told Asia-Plus on the basis anonymity.
He noted that he does not know the exact number of COVID-19 patients, but up to three COVID-19 patients have been admitted to the hospital’s intensive care daily in recent days.
Health workers say some patients with suspected COVID-19 diagnoses have been admitted to City Clinical Hospital No 5.
Health workers say there are also patients with suspected COVID-19 diagnoses in Khujand, the capital of the northern province of Sughd.
The Khujand city hospital of infectious diseases, however, denied this information as unfounded.
Tajik health authorities say Tajikistan hasn't recorded any new infections since December 31, 2020. As of today, the authorities have reported a total of around 13,300 coronavirus infections leading to 90 fatalities.
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