The Afghan Ministry of Public Health (MoPH) on Wednesday said that 12 percent of the COVID-19 samples tested in the laboratories in the past one week have proved positive.

According to the Ministry of Public Health, 38,240 active cases of COVID-19 have so far been reported in Afghanistan.

Previously the Ministry of Public Health had said that over ten million Afghans had been infected with the virus.

There are no exact figures about deaths from COVID-19.

The Afghan-Japan Hospital, once a key center for the treatment of COVID-19 patients, is now seeing less patient come for treatment. 

“There are no credible statistics about the scale of fatalities,” said Akmal Samsor, a spokesman for the Ministry of Interior Affairs.

Currently, only 35 COVID-19 patients have been admitted to the Afghan-Japan hospital, three of whom are patients in the intensive care unit.

“We witnessed a significant decline in the number of patients consulting the hospital over the past month. Fortunately, the number of patients has seen a visible decline,” said Abdul Zahir Sultani, the head of the Afghan-Japan hospital.

Some of the patients are students who were living at Kabul University.

According to Afghan government statistics, 1,409 patients have so far lost their lives from COVID-19.

But doctors have said that the exact figure of those who have died from the virus is much more than the official numbers.