Published 11:52 IST, August 6th 2020
Afghanistan: Nearly 10 million people infected with coronavirus, officials say
Afghanistan estimates nearly a third of the nation's population or 10 million people have been infected with the coronavirus.
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According to the health ministry of Afghanistan, nearly a third of the nation's population or 10 million people have been infected with the coronavirus. While talking to media Health Minister Ahmad Jawad Osmani said that the result came from survey-based on antibody tests done on around 9,500 people across Afghanistan with technical help by the World Health Organization.
The estimates survey reveals that 31.5 percent of the population had contracted the coronavirus, with the highest infection rate in capital city Kabul, where more than half of the city's five million population were believed to have been infected with the novel coronavirus. Health Minister Ahmad Jawad Osmani also told that the second wave of the outbreak is happening everywhere in the world and Afghanistan can not be an exception for the virus and finding by the survey will be used to better prepare for the second wave.
The contagious virus entered war-torn Afghanistan in the month of February as thousands of migrants came back from neighboring country Iran, which at the time was one of the most hit nations with COVID 19 in the region. The country is fighting internal civil war for decades and with collapsed healthcare and coronavirus it’s like fuel in fire for Afghanistan.
Collapsed Healthcare
Family members, without protective equipment and only a few wearing faces masks, help care for the patients lying in hospital beds. They say they have no choice because there are not enough nurses and other medical staff in Hospitals. The country is reportedly running out of hospital beds. According to reports, officials revealed that there was possibly a ‘disaster coming’ in the nation. Afghanistan has 36,829 confirmed cases of coronavirus with 1,294 deaths.
(Image Credit-AP)
11:53 IST, August 6th 2020