Tashkent, 2 November. Sixteen children, one coach and 11 parents from Karaganda football schools who took part in the Dostlik Cup international tournament were hospitalised in Tashkent after breakfast at a hotel, the Karaganda Region Physical Culture and Sports Department said.
The tournament ran from 28 October to 2 November, with teams from Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan and Kazakhstan. The Karaganda region was represented by the private schools Jas Batir, Nomad Akademiya and Skaut in three age groups (born in 2019, 2018 and 2014). The delegation included 60 children, 32 parents and four coaches, and the trip was paid for privately. Those who fell ill are being treated at city infectious diseases hospital No. 5; all of them lived and ate at the same hotel. According to one of the mothers, the first cases appeared after breakfast on 30 October, Kazinform reported.
Kazakhstan’s Foreign Ministry confirmed the hospitalisations. All Kazakhstani citizens who need help have been placed in specialised medical institutions in Uzbekistan, ministry spokesman Zhanbolat Usenov said: diplomats are in touch with relatives and hospitals and are keeping the matter under control, Kazakhstan Today reports. The number of those taken ill varied in different outlets from 15 to 16 children; the regional department speaks of 28 people in hospital, while Zakon.kz relays a report of Uzbekistan’s Health Ministry about 17 people hospitalised with poisoning, without saying who exactly they are.
What we know now: The cause of the illness has not been established. Parents suspect food poisoning, according to Azattyq Ruhy, but there are no test results or official conclusion in the available statements. Qumash.kz wrote about a child in intensive care; the statements of the Foreign Ministry and the regional department contain no such report. All those who fell ill lived at the same hotel: Kazinform names it as G’ayrat Hoji ota hotel.
Background: The teams travelled to the tournament at private expense, not at the region’s, as the physical culture and sports department stressed.
