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After pressuring doctors forbidding them to diagnose COVID-19 cases, and sacking the Minister of Health (on May 5th), the Tajik government eventually acknowledged the virus as being the cause for the death of 20 citizens in the country. On May 8th, Radio Ozodi reported over 500 cases, while the website kvtj.info enables citizens to list "suspicious" deaths. The representative of the World Health Organization Galina Perfiliyeva resigned after being criticized for supporting official denial of the pandemic in the country. Hospitals are already overwhelmed: lack of equipment despite imports from China, private clinics are closed, doctors live out in fear. While the government says that treatment will be provided for free, it seems that people still need to buy drugs themselves, when they are able to find them in pharmacy. 