KABUL (Tolo News): The Ministry of Public Health on Friday reported 1,310 new positive cases of COVID-19 out of 3,811 samples tested in the last 24 hours. The ministry also reported 36 deaths and 55 recoveries from COVID-19 in the same period.
The new cases were reported in Kabul (330), Kandahar (55), Herat (41), Balkh (106), Nangarhar (85), Takhar (55), Kunduz (138), Baghlan (33), Faryab (14), Paktia (29), Maidan Wardak (71), Badakhshan (60), Laghman (2), Bamiyan (22), Kunar (12), Panjshir (128), Zabul (10), Ghor (4), Uruzgan (17), Farah (Paktika (48), Sar-e-Pul (44) and Samangan (6) provinces.
Deaths were reported in Kabul (10), Herat (3), Balkh (7), Kandahar (6), Nangarhar (2), Paktia (2), Maidan Wardak (1), Badakhshan (2), Logar (2), and Paktika (1) provinces. The ministry reported that the cumulative total of known COVID-19 cases is 77,963, the total number of reported deaths is 3,104, and the total number of recoveries is 58,125.
So far, 488,824 samples have been tested in government centers and there are 16,741 known active COVID-19 cases in the country, data by the ministry indicates. According to Johns Hopkins University, the number of deaths from COVID-19 globally is more than 3,702,028 and the number of known global coronavirus cases is 172,170,058.
Meanwhile, acting Minister of Public Health Wahid Majroh said that over 50 percent of hospitalized COVID-19 patients need oxygen, as cases rise across the country. Majroh said the domestic oxygen production firms do not have the capacity to address the needs of the country’s hospitals to provide oxygen, and Afghanistan will ask regional nations for help with the oxygen shortage.
“We are stepping up to a critical stage in Afghanistan; one of the reasons that the scale of the crisis has expanded in Afghanistan is due to the shortage of oxygen,” said Majroh. “We pleaded for oxygen for our patient and then oxygen was provided by doctors,” said Mujtaba, a patient’s visitor.
“He had a fever and was shivering, he also had asthma and he lacked oxygen,” said Mahmoud, a patient’s visitor. Majroh said there are around seven medical oxygen-producing factories in Afghanistan which cannot address the needs of the country’s health system. “Our countrymen are making a joke of wearing a facemask, they cite school closures to blame us, therefore Afghanistan requests neighboring countries to support Afghanistan in the delivery of oxygen,” added Majroh. UNICEF had pledged to establish oxygen production firms at Afghanistan’s hospitals by March, but the Afghan Health Ministry says that it has failed to deliver on its promises.
