'Disaster is coming': Kabul guv over shortage of Covid beds as cases rise in Afghanistan

While Afghanistan’s COVID-19 tally crossed the 19,500 mark, the country is reportedly running out of hospital beds. According to reports, officials revealed that there was possibly a ‘disaster coming’ in the nation. Afghanistan recently reported 761 new coronavirus cases in the span of 24 hours. The death toll in the country stands at 320.

Possibilities of an 'imminent disaster'

As per reports, Health Minister Ahmad Jawad Osmani revealed that hospitals in Afghanistan were nearing capacity and that they will soon run out of beds and space if the number of new coronavirus cases keeps increasing. The Afghan capital of Kabul is currently the country’s coronavirus epicentre and has many more coronavirus cases than was expected. "There is a disaster coming," said the Kabul governor.

The governor of Kabul, Mohammad Yakub Haidary, during a press conference said that he fears there may be a possibility that Kabul alone could have a million coronavirus cases. He further said that there are reports of people burying dead bodies at night making it hard to get an official count of the deaths caused by the coronavirus. The governor even claimed that the city "fills 10-15 ambulances of dead people every day".

According to reports, Afghanistan issued orders for a nationwide lockdown just like many other countries but the government's orders were largely ignored. Daily wage earners chose to take their chances and risk the streets rather than losing a day of work. The Afghan Health Minister ensured that coronavirus restrictions would be strictly enforced for the next three months and people will be made to wear masks and maintain social distancing.

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According to a statement by International Rescue Committee (IRC), majority of the country’s COVID-19 suspected are not being tested, the organization believes that out of all the suspected cases, only about 20 per cent have been tested. The IRC also revealed that Afghanistan also has the highest rates of positive cases out of those that have been tested., around 40 per cent of the people that are tested turn out to have COVID-19.

(Representative Image)

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