Abstract: medRxiv preprint doi: https://doi.org/10.1101/2021.01.06.20249091; this version posted January 8, 2021. The copyright holder for this preprint (which was not certified by peer review) is the author/funder, who has granted medRxiv a license to display the preprint in perpetuity. All rights reserved. No reuse allowed without permission. Yegorov S et al. COVID-19 in Kazakhstan 1 Epidemiological and Clinical Characteristics, and Virologic Features of COVID-19 2 Patients in Kazakhstan: a Nation-Wide, Retrospective, Cohort Study. 3 Sergey Yegorov, PhD1*^, Maiya Goremykina, MD2^, Raifa Ivanova, MD2^, Sara V. 4 Good3, PhD, Dmitriy Babenko, MD3^, Alexandr Shevtsov, PhD4 on behalf of the COVID- 5 19 Genomics Research Group#, Kelly S. MacDonald, MD5,6 and Yersin Zhunussov, MD7 6 on behalf of the Semey COVID-19 Epidemiology Research Group . 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 1 School of Sciences and Humanities, Nazarbayev University, 53 Kabanbay Batyr Ave, Nur-Sultan, 010000, Republic of Kazakhstan. 2 Department of Rheumatology and Non-Infectious Diseases, Semey Medical University 103 Abai street, Semey, 071400, Republic of Kazakhstan. 3 Department of Biology, University of Winnipeg, 599 Portage Avenue, Winnipeg, MB, R3B2E9, Canada. 4 National Centre for Biotechnology, 13/5 Kurgalzhynskoye road, Nur-Sultan, 010000, Republic of Kazakhstan 5 Departments of Medicine, Microbiology & Immunology, Max Rady College of Medicine, University of Manitoba, 745 Bannatyne Avenue, Winnipeg, MB, R3E 0J9, Canada 6 JC Wilt Infectious Diseases Research Centre, Public Health Agency of Canada, 745 Logan Avenue, Winnipeg, MB, R3E3L5, Canada 7 Department of Public Health, Semey Medical University, 103 Abai street, Semey, 071400, Republic of Kazakhstan. 22 23 # The members of the COVID-19 Genomics Research Group (CGRG) collaborative group 24 are listed in the appendix pp. 8-9 25 26 The members of the Semey COVID-19 Epidemiology Research Group (SCERG) collaborative group are listed in the appendix pp. 8-9 1 NOTE: This preprint reports new research that has not been certified by peer review and should not be used to guide clinical practice. medRxiv preprint doi: https://doi.org/10.1101/2021.01.06.20249091; this version posted January 8, 2021. The copyright holder for this preprint (which was not certified by peer review) is the author/funder, who has granted medRxiv a license to display the preprint in perpetuity. All rights reserved. No reuse allowed without permission. Yegorov S et al. COVID-19 in Kazakhstan 1 * Corresponding author contact emails and phone: 2 sergey.yegorov@nu.edu.kz, yegorovsrg@gmail.com, +77770211487 3 ^ These authors contributed equally to this work 4 5 Key words: COVID-19; SARS-CoV-2; clinical characteristics; disease risk factors, 6 molecular epidemiology; Central Asia; Kazakhstan. 2 medRxiv preprint doi: https://doi.org/10.1101/2021.01.06.20249091; this version posted January 8, 2021. The copyright holder for this preprint (which was not certified by peer review) is the author/funder, who has granted medRxiv a license to display the preprint in perpetuity. All rights reserved. No reuse allowed without permission. Yegorov S et al. COVID-19 in Kazakhstan 1 ABSTRACT. 2 Background: The earliest coronavirus disease-2019 (COVID-19) cases in Central Asia 3 were announced in March 2020 by Kazakhstan. Despite the implementation of aggressive 4 measures to curb infection..