Coronavirus; the people should not attend New Year Festival

Ministry of Public Health urges citizens not to attend the Nawroz festival – Persian New Year – to prevent contracting with the novel coronavirus.

Public Health Minister Ferozuddin Feroz said, “About Nawroz, we advise people not to attend mass gatherings. It is better not to attend the Nawroz festival – for the good of them and their families; because there are possibilities of coronavirus outbreak, we emphasize on not attending the festival.”

In Afghanistan, tens of suspicious cases of the coronavirus have been diagnosed so far; however, only one case has been confirmed positive in Herat – the infected had returned from Qum city of Iran.

The government of Afghanistan, as a part of its precaution strategy, decided not to open schools and universities in Herat.

Also, in a cabinet meeting, the president called the return of refugees a critical problem and ordered officials to surge precautions in western borders of the country.

According to the ministry of public health, 81 coronavirus possible cases have been tested so far, out of which only one has been diagnosed positive, the rest have been all negative.

The tested people came from Herat, Farah, Helmand, Ghor, Baghlan, Balkh, Faryab, Ghazni, Logar, and Kabul provinces.

Minister Feroz says that each coronavirus test costs up to USD1,600.