Astana: Kazakhstan has officially lifted restrictive measures as the COVID-19 pandemic has been declared over by the World Health Organization (WHO), the Kazakh Ministry of Healthcare said on Sunday.

"Due to the announcement by the World Health Organization of the end of the COVID-19 pandemic, stabilization of the epidemiological situation of coronavirus infection in Kazakhstan and in the world, the resolutions of the Chief State Sanitary Doctor of the Republic of Kazakhstan providing for restrictive measures to combat the coronavirus infection among the population, in educational institutions, as well as the Ashyq project were canceled," the ministry said.

While the coronavirus has not disappeared, it mostly causes mild versions of COVID-19 now and, therefore, will be monitored regularly to the same extent as other viral diseases, the ministry added.

On May 5, WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus officially declared an end to the COVID-19 pandemic, but emphasized that the novel coronavirus still poses a threat. The COVID-19 pandemic was declared in March 2020.

(With UNI inputs)