COVID-19: Uzbekistan May Take Billions In Loans To Tackle Pandemic

The global death toll from the coronavirus is more than 191,000 with over 2.7 million infections confirmed, causing mass disruptions as governments continue to try to slow the spread of the new respiratory illness.

Here’s a roundup of COVID-19 developments in RFE/RL’s broadcast regions.

Uzbekistan

Uzbek President Shavkat Mirziyoev has signed a decree that will allow the Central Asian nation to take $3.1 billion from international financial institutions in soft and long-term loans to reduce the effects of the coronavirus outbreak.

According to a presidential decree that was placed on an online database of state legislaiton on April 24, preliminary agreements have been secured for loans from the World Bank, the Asian Development Bank, the Islamic Development Bank, the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development, and the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank.

Deputy Prime Minister Jamshid Qochqorov told reporters a day earlier that the former Soviet republic is also expecting to receive $375 million from the International Monetary Fund to combat the effects of the pandemic.

As of April 24, the number of registered coronavirus cases in Uzbekistan was officially reported as 1,778, including seven deaths.

With reporting by RFE/RL’s Uzbek Service