More than 1.4 million doses of the Johnson & Johnson COVID-19 vaccine arrived in Afghanistan on Friday. 

Donated by the United States to COVAX, the 1,484,900 doses were delivered through the COVAX Facility’s dose-sharing scheme to the Government of Afghanistan.

This is the first of two vaccine consignments to arrive this month, bringing the total donation to around 3.3 million doses.

“These vaccines arrive at a critical time for Afghanistan as the country faces a difficult surge in COVID-19 infections,” said UNICEF Representative in Afghanistan Hervé Ludovic De Lys. “As many countries face vaccine supply challenges, the dose-sharing mechanism is a rapid way to close the immediate supply gap and ensure the most vulnerable, including healthcare workers, teachers, the elderly, and those in hard-to-reach areas, are protected against COVID-19.”

Between April 2020 and 8 July 2021, a total of 131,586 people was infected with COVID-19; there have been 5,561 deaths. But since the beginning of the third wave in June 2021, there has been an exponential increase in the number of cases, with an average of over 2000 new cases and 100 deaths per day.

Vaccination rates remain extremely low in Afghanistan, with less than 4 per cent of the population vaccinated, and the virus continues to deeply affect the lives of the most vulnerable children and families across the country as they face the compounded impact of the pandemic, conflict and drought.

The Ministry of Public Health on Friday reported 1,191 new positive cases of COVID-19 out of 3,526 samples tested in the last 24 hours, a slight decrease in daily reported cases.

The ministry also reported 77 deaths and 925 recoveries from COVID-19 in the same period. 

The new cases were reported in Kabul (242), Herat (169), Kandahar (24), Balkh (17), Nangarhar (56), Takhar (45), Kunduz (55), Faryab (10), Maidan Wardak (28), Helmand (34), Bamiyan (58), Ghazni (23), Badakhshan (61), Paktia (43), Daikundi (19), Laghman (113), Zabul (66), Ghor (38), Badghis (199), Farah (25), Uruzgan (1), Paktika (10) and Nuristan (23) provinces.

The deaths were reported Kabul (29), Balkh (5), Kandahar (1), Nangarhar (6), Takhar (1), Kunduz (2), Faryab (2), Maidan Wardak (3), Helmand (2), Ghazni (2), Badakhshan (1), Paktia (3), Nimroz (2), Daikundi (1), Laghman (4), Kunar (1), Ghor (2), Farah (2), Khost (4), Samangan (2), Paktika (1) and Sar-e-Pul (1) provinces.

Data by the Public Health Ministry shows that the total number of cases is 132,777, total deaths stand at 5,638 and total recoveries are at 79,446.