Russia’s Aeroflot suspends flights to Kazakhstan amid coronavirus outbreak

BAKU, Azerbaijan, March 17 By Nargiz Sadikhova - Trend: Russia’s Aeroflot airline company is temporarily suspending flights to Kazakhstan till April 23, 2020, Trend reports with reference to the company. Thus, the flights carried out to Kazakhstan’s Almaty will be suspended from Mar. 23, to Kostanay - from Mar. 21, to Karaganda - from Mar. 19, to Nur-Sultan - from Mar. 20, to Aktau - from Mar. 23, to Aktobe - from Mar. 23, to Shymkent - from Mar. 23 and to Atyrau - from Mar. 24. Up before the set date of the flights suspension, the company will go on implementing flights between countries with a goal to transport Russian citizens back to Russia. In order to return Russian citizens back to Russia, the company will implement flights of the Sheremetyevo – Almaty – Sheremetyevo route (March 17/18 till March 22/23), Sheremetyevo – Nur-Sultan – Sheremetyevo (March 17/18 till March 19/20), Sheremetyevo – Aktobe – Sheremetyevo (March 17, 19, 21), Sheremetyevo – Shymkent – Sheremetyevo (March 18, 21), Sheremetyevo – Atyrau – Sheremetyevo (March 17/18, 19/20, 21/22), Sheremetyevo – Karaganda – Sheremetyevo (March 17/18), Sheremetyevo – Kostanay – Sheremetyevo (March 18/19), Sheremetyevo – Aktau – Sheremetyevo (March 17/18, 19/20), the company said. On March 13, 2020, first two cases of coronavirus infection have been detected in Kazakhstan among those who arrived in Almaty city from Germany. The total number of coronavirus cases detected in Kazakhstan is 13. The outbreak in the Chinese city of Wuhan - which is an international transport hub - began at a fish market in late December 2019. The number of people killed by the disease has surpassed 7,150. Over 182,406 people have been confirmed as infected. Meanwhile, over 79,430 people have reportedly recovered. The World Health Organization (WHO) declared COVID-19 a pandemic on March 11. --- Follow the author on twitter: @nargiz_sadikh