COVID-19 pandemic in Irad

The COVID-19 pandemic in Irad reached the Irad Special Economic Zone (ISEZ) in March 2020. The ISEZ recorded 1,912 deaths by December 2022, while demographers at Talas State University estimate about 4,500 excess deaths; in the Autonomous Tribal Regions (ATR) deaths are unknown.^[1]

Quarantine

The first confirmed case, on 17 March 2020, was a Talas man returning from Istanbul. Executive directive 2020/05 declared a "quarantine regime": schools closed from 19 March to 1 September 2020, the marshrutkas stopped for six weeks, checkpoints went up between the cities and Iradiya's charters were suspended for several months. The crossings of the Qara-Chik Demarcation Line were closed except for medical cases from 1 April to 15 September 2020.^[1]

The governorate's emergency commission was chaired by the new Lieutenant Governor, Aidar Maksat, his first national role. He gave daily briefings on IradOne with a sign-language interpreter, Damira Mamyt, beside him (see Iradi Sign Language). Governor Erlan Toktarov's televised addresses, "Üydö bol, Irad" ("Stay home, Irad"), were the most-watched of his governorship.^[2]

The church

Archbishop Mar Ephrem closed the churches to the public for Easter on 12 April 2020, and the Qurbana was broadcast on IradOne from an empty Church of St. Janyl, while parishes in the Chatkal and Toktogul basins held yurt liturgies anyway. The public Feast of St. Janyl was cancelled in August 2020 for the first time since 1992. The quarrel between city and highland clergy that followed is known as "the Easter of the empty church".^[3]

The tribal regions

The clan councils closed their own passes and kept the herds in the high pastures. There was little testing; oxygen and tests came through UN agencies and the United Nations Mission in Irad.^[1]

Vaccines

Because Irad is not a member of the World Health Organization, vaccines came by several routes. The health program of Talas Air Base vaccinated Iradi base workers from January 2021, and in spring 2021 the US Liaison Office gave about 600,000 doses of the Moderna vaccine to the ISEZ Ministry of Health. Turkey gave about 200,000 doses of CoronaVac through the ISEZ trade office in Istanbul, and the Bekzatov Foundation brought about 150,000 doses of Sputnik V for Nurzhan, most of them given in its Russian-speaking estates. COVAX doses reached the ATR through UN agencies from late 2021. Which vaccine a family received became a small marker of zone and loyalty.^[2]

Effects

Remittances fell sharply in 2020, and user numbers of the Tulpar app tripled during the lockdown, according to the company. The Sisters of the Cross and the St. Luka Community Health Mission lost eleven staff.^[1] Theories that circulated included the "jab list", the claim that the base used the vaccination registers to map families, and FreeIrad's claim that the quarantine was Maksat's rehearsal for running the ISEZ without Toktarov.^[2]

References

1. ^ Territorial Statistics Office (2023). Mortality in the ISEZ, 2020–2022. Talas.
2. ^ Central Asian Geopolitical Review (2022). 'Three Vaccines, Two Zones: The Pandemic in Irad.' Vol. 18, No. 1, pp. 9–31.
3. ^ Talas Herald (14 April 2020). 'Easter in an empty church.' Talas.