In July 2020, Kyrgyzstan witnessed skyrocketing numbers of COVID-19 cases and related deaths, one of the highest growth in cases per capita of any country in the world. The number of cases rapidly increased more than six-fold, from 5,700 to 35,000, leaving the state-run health care system paralyzed. Hospitals were overwhelmed and medical staff increasingly fell ill.
During the peak of the pandemic in the Summer of 2020, testing sites throughout the Kyrgyz Republic received up to 10,000 samples per day. The government-run labs simply could not keep up with that much testing and data. The staff in some of the facilities had to work 24 hours per day to managed the workload.
To manage the increasingly difficult task, USAID supported the introduction of an online data management system for COVID-19 testing.
Within two months, USAID’s partner developed and deployed a special COVID-19 module in all 12 testing facilities throughout the country. The project also helped to equip some facilities with computers capable of running the software and assisted in training the medical staff to manage the data.
“Without this system, the country’s testing facilities would have collapsed,”
says Gulmira Kalmambetova, Director of the National Reference Laboratory, one of the leading COVID-19 testing sites.
The Everyday Hero
Throughout the pandemic, Kyrgyzstani civil society organizations stepped in to provide essential services when the government was unable. Organizations like Elim Barsynby demonstrate that a country with a strong civil society is better able to overcome challenges and fill in the gaps where the government is unable.
