<p>Kazakhstan has banned corporate parties and sporting events over the New Year holidays and tightened quarantine measures at a key oil field in a bid to contain the coronavirus, the government said Sunday.</p>.<p>The new restrictions on the holding of mass gatherings and sports events will enter force on December 25 and last until January 5, said a statement released by the office of the prime minister.</p>.<p>Authorities said that tougher measures at the Tengiz oil field where hundreds of employees have contracted the virus will continue "until the epidemiological situation stabilises".</p>.<p>The government also said that it would introduce price controls to make medicines used to treat the virus 24 percent cheaper on average, the statement said.</p>.<p>Year-end company parties are an important source of income for the Kazakh hospitality sector which has taken a battering over the course of a year that has included two coronavirus lockdowns.</p>.<p>Kazakhstan's chief sanitary doctor warned in May that the Tengiz oil field where US oil giant Chevron has a 50 percent stake could face closure over rising cases.</p>.<p>Kazakhstan, a Central Asian country of around 19 million people, has registered 146,584 cases of the coronavirus with 130,766 recoveries and 2,147 deaths.</p>
<p>Kazakhstan has banned corporate parties and sporting events over the New Year holidays and tightened quarantine measures at a key oil field in a bid to contain the coronavirus, the government said Sunday.</p>.<p>The new restrictions on the holding of mass gatherings and sports events will enter force on December 25 and last until January 5, said a statement released by the office of the prime minister.</p>.<p>Authorities said that tougher measures at the Tengiz oil field where hundreds of employees have contracted the virus will continue "until the epidemiological situation stabilises".</p>.<p>The government also said that it would introduce price controls to make medicines used to treat the virus 24 percent cheaper on average, the statement said.</p>.<p>Year-end company parties are an important source of income for the Kazakh hospitality sector which has taken a battering over the course of a year that has included two coronavirus lockdowns.</p>.<p>Kazakhstan's chief sanitary doctor warned in May that the Tengiz oil field where US oil giant Chevron has a 50 percent stake could face closure over rising cases.</p>.<p>Kazakhstan, a Central Asian country of around 19 million people, has registered 146,584 cases of the coronavirus with 130,766 recoveries and 2,147 deaths.</p>