The Ministry of Public Health (MoPH) has suggested that the Afghan government ask 50 percent of the government servants to work from home if the second wave of COVID-19 gets serious in the country.

“We need to work on this plan, there is a need for a proper plan to make sure that with the implementation of this plan we can curb the further spread of the virus,” said Masooma Jaffari, a deputy spokeswoman for the Ministry of Public Health.

What do ordinary people say?

“No one respects health guidelines in Kabul city,” said Mirwais, a resident in Kabul.

“Wearing a face mask is very important for all people because masks prevent the virus,” said Abdul Hadi, a resident in Kabul.

“You witnessed that it left significant casualties and financial losses for the world. Unfortunately, our people do not take the second wave of COVID-19 seriously,” said Abdul Jalal, a resident in Kabul.

Fewer people wear masks:

Hamid is a resident of Kabul who sells face masks in his car. He says that only a few people prefer to buy the masks.

“I sell masks, but I see that the people do not respect the lockdown,” said Hamid.

The Ministry of Public Health has also suggested the people avoid crowded areas such as wedding halls, parks and swimming pools.

“Our effort is focused on how to implement the health guidelines and other safety measures among the people which are helpful to reduce further infections of the people,” said Abdul Qadeer Qadeer, the deputy Minister of Public Health for policy and planning.

Latest COVID-19 figures in Afghanistan and the world:

The Ministry of Public Health on Thursday reported 213 new positive cases of COVID-19 out of 1,401 samples tested in the last 24 hours.    

The Public Health Ministry also reported 18 deaths and 71 recoveries from COVID-19 in the same period.

The new cases were reported in Kabul (34), Herat (30), Kandahar (5), Balkh (14), Nangarhar (4), Paktia (10), Bamiyan (7), Baghlan (22), Parwan (16), Nimruz (11), Daikundi (1), Logar (12), Helmand (8), Laghman (7), Ghor (1), Kunar (8), Kapisa (21) and Zabul (2) provinces.  

The deaths were reported in Kabul (5), Herat (4), Balkh (3), Paktia (1), Kunduz (1), Wardak (2) and Paktia (2) provinces, according to data provided by the Ministry of Public Health.    

The data by the ministry shows that the cumulative number of total cases is now 48,753, the number of total reported deaths is 1,939, and the total number of recoveries is 38,221.  

So far, 160,161 samples have been tested in government centers and there are 8,019 known active COVID-19 cases in the country, data by the ministry indicates.    

The number of deaths from COVID-19 globally is more than 1,570,642 and the number of known global coronavirus cases is 68,956,116, according to Johns Hopkins University.