Asqar Uzaqbaiuly Mamin is a Kazakh politician and economist who served as the Prime Minister of Kazakhstan from 2019 to 2022, resigning due to pressure from the 2022 Kazakh unrest. He served as First Deputy Prime Minister from 9 September 2016 to 21 February 2019. Previously, he was the president of the Kazakhstan Temir Zholy, the national railway company of Kazakhstan. He also serves as the president of the Kazakhstan Ice Hockey Federation, a position he assumed in 2008.
The COVID-19 pandemic in Belarus was a part of the worldwide pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2. The virus was confirmed to have spread to Belarus, when the first case of COVID-19 in the country was registered in Minsk on 28 February 2020. As of 29 January 2023, a total of 19,047,714 vaccine doses have been administered.
A COVID‑19 vaccine is a vaccine intended to provide acquired immunity against severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), the virus that causes coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID‑19).
The COVID-19 pandemic in Kazakhstan was a part of the worldwide pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2. The virus was confirmed to have reached Kazakhstan on 13 March 2020 after two Kazakh citizens in Almaty returned from Germany. That same day, two more cases were confirmed, with one female arriving from Italy in Astana and the other from Germany in Almaty as well. Following the outbreak, on 15 March 2020, President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev declared a state of emergency that was set to last until 15 April 2020. However, measures were prolonged in order to curb the transmission of the virus, leading to many notable holidays such as Nowruz and the Victory Day being cancelled. On 19 March 2020, a strict quarantine was placed on the cities of Astana and Almaty, where the most cases were occurring. On 30 March 2020, Atyrau and five cities in Karaganda Region went under a lockdown.
Turkmenistan is the only remaining sovereign country in the world that has not reported any cases of COVID-19. There were no confirmed cases of COVID-19 in Turkmenistan, with the totalitarian government being proactive in censoring relevant information. It is however suspected to have spread in the country unreported; specifics are difficult to ascertain and confirm in absence of independent media.
Yelzhan Amantaiuly Birtanov is a Kazakh politician who served as the Minister of Healthcare from 2017 to 2020.
Sputnik V or Gam-COVID-Vac is an adenovirus viral vector vaccine for COVID-19 developed by the Gamaleya Research Institute of Epidemiology and Microbiology in Russia. It is the world's first registered combination vector vaccine for the prevention of COVID-19, having been registered on 11 August 2020 by the Russian Ministry of Health.
CoronaVac, also known as the Sinovac COVID-19 vaccine, is a whole inactivated virus COVID-19 vaccine developed by the Chinese company Sinovac Biotech. It was phase III clinically trialled in Brazil, Chile, Indonesia, the Philippines, and Turkey and relies on traditional technology similar to other inactivated-virus COVID-19 vaccines, such as the Sinopharm BIBP vaccine, another Chinese vaccine, and Covaxin, an Indian vaccine. CoronaVac does not need to be frozen, and both the final product and the raw material for formulating CoronaVac can be transported refrigerated at 2–8 °C (36–46 °F), the temperatures at which flu vaccines are kept.
India began administration of COVID-19 vaccines on 16 January 2021. As of 4 March 2023, India has administered over 2.2 billion doses overall, including first, second and precautionary (booster) doses of the currently approved vaccines. In India, 95% of the eligible population (12+) has received at least one shot, and 88% of the eligible population (12+) is fully vaccinated.
SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19, was isolated in late 2019. Its genetic sequence was published on 11 January 2020, triggering an urgent international response to prepare for an outbreak and hasten the development of a preventive COVID-19 vaccine. Since 2020, vaccine development has been expedited via unprecedented collaboration in the multinational pharmaceutical industry and between governments. By June 2020, tens of billions of dollars were invested by corporations, governments, international health organizations, and university research groups to develop dozens of vaccine candidates and prepare for global vaccination programs to immunize against COVID‑19 infection. According to the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations (CEPI), the geographic distribution of COVID‑19 vaccine development shows North American entities to have about 40% of the activity, compared to 30% in Asia and Australia, 26% in Europe, and a few projects in South America and Africa.
EpiVacCorona is a peptide-based vaccine against COVID-19 developed by the Russian VECTOR Center of Virology. The lack of protective effectiveness of EpiVacCorona, which is still in use in Russia, has been reported in scientific literature and in the media. The vaccine consists of three chemically synthesized peptides that are conjugated to a large carrier protein. This protein is a fusion product of a viral nucleocapsid protein and a bacterial MBP protein. A phase III clinical trial to show whether or not the vaccine can protect people against COVID-19 was launched in November 2020 with more than three thousand participants. The conclusions and results of the trial have not been made public.
The COVID-19 vaccination campaign in Russia is an ongoing mass immunization campaign against severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), the virus that causes coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19), in response to the ongoing pandemic in the country. Russia became the first country to begin a mass COVID-19 vaccination programme on 5 December 2020, starting with primarily doctors, medical workers and teachers. In January 2021, this was extended to the entire population.
CoviVac is an inactivated virus-based COVID-19 vaccine developed by the Chumakov Centre, which is an institute of the Russian Academy of Sciences. It was approved for use in Russia in February 2021, being the third COVID-19 vaccine to get approval in Russia. It obtained a permission for phase III clinical trial on 2 June 2021.
QazCovid-in, commercially known as QazVac, is a COVID-19 vaccine developed by the Research Institute for Biological Safety Problems in Kazakhstan. QazCoVac-P is a second COVID-19 vaccine developed by the Kazakh Biosafety Research Institute and in clinical trials.
COVID-19 vaccination in South Korea is an ongoing immunization campaign against severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), the virus that causes coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19), in response to the ongoing pandemic in the country.
Sputnik Light is a single dose COVID-19 vaccine developed by the Gamaleya Research Institute of Epidemiology and Microbiology. It consists of the first dose of the Sputnik V vaccine, which is based on the Ad26 vector, and it can be stored at a normal refrigerator temperature of 2–8 °C (36–46 °F). The institute says this version would be ideally suited for areas with acute outbreaks, allowing more people to be vaccinated quickly. It will also be used as a third (booster) dose for those who received Sputnik V at least 6 months earlier.
COVID-19 vaccine clinical research uses clinical research to establish the characteristics of COVID-19 vaccines. These characteristics include efficacy, effectiveness, and safety. As of November 2022, 40 vaccines are authorized by at least one national regulatory authority for public use:
Kunsulu Daltonqyzy Zakaryia is a Kazakh researcher in biological safety, Doctor of Biological Sciences, and from April 2023 the President of the Kazakh Academy of Sciences.
COVID-19 portal 
