Test results in Afghan capital raise concerns
KABUL, Afghanistan — One-third of 500 random coronavirus tests in Afghanistan’s capital came back positive, health officials said Sunday, raising fears of widespread undetected infections in one of the world’s most fragile states.
Neighboring Iran said it would reopen schools and mosques in some locations, even though the nation has been the regional epicenter of the pandemic since mid-February.
The results of the random tests in the Afghan capital, Kabul, are “concerning,” said Public Health Ministry spokesman Wahid Mayar. Afghanistan has performed only limited testing so far — close to 12,000, with more than 2,700 confirmed infections, in a nation of 36.6 million people.
As more testing becomes available, the country’s confirmed infection numbers will probably rise sharply, Mayar said. He urged residents to stay at home. Kabul and most other cities are in lockdown, but compliance has not been widespread.
The death toll — officially at 85 — could also be much higher.
More than 250,000 Afghans returned home from Iran since the beginning of the year, fanning out across their country without being tested or quarantined. Anecdotal reports have emerged of dozens of returnees dying of covid-19, the disease caused by the virus.
Afghanistan’s health care system, devastated by four decades of war, is woefully unprepared for a major outbreak. It has only 400 ventilators.
Testing in Afghanistan has been sporadic, and some of those who are infected have been hiding their symptoms, in part because of local stigma. In parts of the country, there have been reports of covid-19 patients being shunned by their neighbors and even refused food from the local markets.
The government, embroiled in political turmoil, has faced criticism for responding too slowly to the crisis. It only recently started testing in western Herat province, where the hundreds of thousands of returnees from Iran have transited.
Afghanistan has two presidents, both of whom claim to have won last year’s election. American efforts to find a compromise have failed, causing Secretary of State Mike Pompeo to threaten to cut $1 billion in aid.
The bickering has also delayed implementation of a U.S.-Taliban peace deal signed in February to allow Washington to conclude its longest military engagement, end Afghanistan’s decades of war and bring more than 12,000 U.S. soldiers home.
In Iran, authorities said Sunday that 47 people had died in the preceding 24-hour period, the lowest daily toll in two months. Still, Iran remains the hardest-hit country in the Middle East, with more than 97,000 reported cases and more than 6,200 deaths.
Also on Sunday, the U.N. children’s agency urged six countries in the Middle East to green-light polio and measles vaccination campaigns that were put on hold because of the pandemic.
Nearly 10.5 million children younger than 5 are at risk of missing their polio shots, UNICEF said. Nearly 4.5 million children younger than 15 could miss their measles vaccinations.
Polio campaigns are on hold in Syria, Sudan, Yemen and Iraq, while measles vaccinations are suspended in Iraq, Lebanon, Yemen and Djibouti, the agency said.