While positive cases of COVID-19 continue to surge across Afghanistan, the Afghan Ministry of Public Health (MoPH) on Wednesday said that it has grave concerns about a lack of oxygen in COVID-19 hospitals as the number of new patients soar.
Statistics by the Ministry of Public Health indicate that 1,118 cases of COVID-19 have been registered in the country in the past 24 hours and 27 people have died during this period.
Health experts and doctors have questioned the government’s anti-COVID-19 strategy, saying that the government has failed to come up with a clear policy when it comes to curbing people’s freedom of movement in crowded bazaars and other public places such as wedding halls, restaurants and hotels.
“Patients are consulting the hospital who are in a very critical condition, we are trying our best to address their needs, but we face shortcomings like the shortage of beds,” said Mohammad Tariq, a doctor in a COVID-19 hospital in Kabul.
“We don’t see any problem except the shortage of oxygen,” said Farhad, a patient's visit.
“Services are good at the hospital, but sometimes we face a shortage of oxygen,” said Khawja Samim, a patent's visitor.
“60 to 70 percent of the samples that we test here prove positive, this is a warning to the people,” said Gul Ahmad Ayoubi, the head of Balkh's health department.
Last week the government announced a two-week closure of schools and universities. But people say that why the government is not taking action to restrict gathering in other places such as wedding halls, hotels, restaurants and markets.
Kabul, Logar, Balkh, Nangarhar, Kunduz, Kandahar, Maidan Wardak and Kandahar are among the provinces where the majority of the cases have been reported.
Latest COVID-19 figures in Afghanistan:
Afghanistan: 1,118 New Cases of COVID-19, 27 Deaths Reported
The Ministry of Public Health on Wednesday reported 1,118 new positive cases of COVID-19 out of 4,046 samples tested in the last 24 hours.
The ministry also reported 27 deaths and 222 recoveries from COVID-19 in the same period.
The new cases were reported in Kabul (222), Herat (39), Balkh (184), Kandahar (48), Nangarhar (75), Takhar (57), Baghlan (12), Kunduz (65), Faryab (25), Parwan (40), Helmand (12), Maidan Wardak (61), Badakhshan (31), Logar (151), Laghman (6), Ghazni (49), Daikundi (5), Panjshir (16), Ghor (18) and Khost (2) provinces.
Deaths were reported in Kabul (12), Herat (1), Balkh (1), Kandahar (2), Nangarhar (1), Takhar (1), Baghlan (1), Kunduz (2), Paktia (3), Maidan Wardak (1) and Ghazni (2) provinces.
The ministry reported that the cumulative total of known COVID-19 cases is 75,144, the total number of reported deaths is 3,034, and the total number of recoveries is 57,963.
So far, 480,621 samples have been tested in government centers and there are 14,079 known active COVID-19 cases in the country, data by the ministry indicates.
According to Johns Hopkins University, the number of deaths from COVID-19 globally is more than 3,566,905 and the number of known global coronavirus cases is 171,251,053.