The Afghan Japan Hospital in the west of Kabul is the only medical center in the city with the capacity to diagnose the new coronavirus, also known as COVID-19. Up to 150 Afghans from around the country visit the facility each day to be screened and tested.
At 9:00 pm Monday night, 22 people have tested positive for COVID-19, according to the public health minister, who addressed a press conference in Kabul on Monday afternoon and gave health instructions about “social distancing” and other practices to keep the virus at bay.
The first positive case of the virus was reported in the western province of Herat, which shares a large border with Iran, a major coronavirus hotspot.
Thousands of Afghans are returning to Afghanistan from Iran on a daily basis via the Islam Qala border crossing in Herat. One local official estimates it is as many as 15,000 people a day.
Most who visit the Afghan Kabul Hospital are Kabul residents, the officials of the health facility said.
Mohammad Yunus, 32, a resident of Ghazni, visited the Afghan-Japan Hospital to get tested for the coronavirus. He said he had worked in Tehran for many years but earlier this month he had returned to Ghazni, through Herat.
Yunus said his relatives in Malistan district in Ghazni refused to let him enter his village and asked him to test for the virus.
“The spread of the coronavirus was increasing in Iran, therefore many Afghans decided to return to their country. At least 1,000 return from Tehran only every day,” he said.
“Our compatriots should not be concerned, provided they take care of hygiene: wash their hands multiple times and use detergents,” said Murad Mamozai, acting head of the hospital.
The hospital has 100 beds for COVID-19 patients. As of Monday afternoon, 13 people were kept at the hospital as they waited for the results of their tests, which can take between 24 and 48 hours.
“We get swabs from a patient’s throat and it is put in a special container and taken to the laboratory for testing,” said Mohammad Khan Hedayat, a doctor at the hospital.
The hospital was established six years ago by Japan, which invested $28 million in the project. Before COVID-19, patients with tuberculosis, malaria, and AIDS were treated at the hospital.
In Herat, according to Public Health Minister Ferozuddin Feroz, Afs8.5 million ($112,000) have been allocated to fight the coronavirus, and a new 300-bed hospital will be built to deal with COVID-19 cases. The expanded facilities in Herat will increase to hold 1,000 beds.
This comes as the head of Herat's public health directorate, Abdul Hakim Tamanna, said 38 patients fled the regional hospital on Monday and one of them had tested positive for the coronavirus.
He said 17 others remain in isolation in the Herat regional hospital.