Afghanistan COVID-19 updates: 75 new cases, total 37,506

The Ministry of Public Health Friday reported that 75 new Coronavirus cases were positive out of 408 samples tested in the last 24 hours.  

The cases were registered in Kabul (4), Herat (36), Balkh (3), Paktya (1), Bamyan (4), Nangarhar (2), Badghis (5), Logar (2), Ghazni (12), Daikundi (5), and Kunar (1) provinces.

According to the Ministry, so far, 98,199 samples have been tested in COVID-19 testing centers, of which 37,506 cases were diagnosed positive.

The Ministry in its daily updates announced that currently there are 9,347 active COVID-19 cases in Afghanistan.

In the last 24 hours, the ministry also recorded 6 new deaths, five in Herat and one in Logar, from the virus, bringing the total fatalities to 1,369 in the country.

The ministry stated that 452 COVID-19 patients were discharged from the hospitals after treatment, adding that, 27,166 had recovered so far.

Two weeks ago, the Ministry of Public Health released details of an official survey conducted with the help of the World Health Organization that found the coronavirus has likely infected a third of the country’s population – roughly 10 million people.

The Afghan health ministry released the estimates Wednesday, saying they are based on antibody tests on about 9,500 people in 34 provinces. 

Acting Health Minister, Ahmad Jawad Osmani told a news conference in Kabul the survey showed 31.5 percent of Afghanistan’s population has been infected by COVID-19.

Osmani noted that 53 percent of Kabul’s nearly five million residents had contracted the coronavirus.

There are 20,960,424 cases tested positive worldwide, with 760,371 deaths and 13,028,829 recoveries.