COVID-19 kills 40 people in Afghanistan in one week

Forty people have died from COVID-19 in Afghanistan in the past week, authorities said on Tuesday.

The Ministry of Public Health, however, said that the peak of the current wave of COVID-19 has passed in Afghanistan and that infections and deaths are declining.

According the ministry’s data, 59 people died due to coronavirus in the second week of February.

Javed Hazhir, a spokesman for the Public Health Ministry, said that 500 people recovered in the first week of February, 2,600 in the second week, 2,400 in the third week and 3,773 in the last week of the month.

He said that Afghanistan does not have the equipment to detect the Omicron variant of the coronavirus.

According to the official, the World Health Organization had pledged to deliver the equipment to detect the Omicron variant in late January, however, it has not fulfilled its promise.

“We shared with them the problems and the consequences. They make so many promises in the media, but in practice, unfortunately, there has been no major assistance to address the problems,” Hazhir said.

Meanwhile, medical staff at Afghan-Japan hospital, one of the main hospitals treating COVID-19 patients, said that the number of patients has declined in the last couple of weeks.

According to them, most of the patients have Omicron variant symptoms.

Ebadullah Ebadi, a doctor at the hospital, also warned that they will face serious problems if international donors stop funding the facility.