Neighboring Iran, badly hit by the virus, continues to allow thousands of people to cross into Afghanistan daily despite requests to close the border.
A restaurant in Kabul on Monday.
That denial is crumbling now, as the st positive case has been announced in the country. Testing remains extremely limited – only roughly tests have been conducted thus far – so Afghan officials and lawmakers Fear that the number of infected is much higher in the absence of capacity to detect and slow the spread of the virus.
- Most worrying is that Iran has disregarded the Afghan government plea to restrict border crossings, with as many as 25, people still crossing into Afghanistan daily. All of the 30 confirmed coronavirus cases in Afghanistan involved travelers who had returned from Iran, according to Wahidullah Mayar, a spokesman for the Afghan health ministry.
- The first positive case was reported in Herat Province, which shares a large border with Iran and is the main entry point to Afghanistan. Now, six other provinces have also reported cases of the virus, raising fears that infections have spread across the country without containment.
- Much of the fear stems from the fact that Afghanistan hasn’t even been able to get the situation in the worst-hit province under control, with medical staff lacking some of the most basic equipment and government officials decrying the continuing flow of People from Iran and the lack of funding.
“We are in a situation where the politicians and even some parts of the government don’t feel how grave the danger is,” Abdul Qayoum Rahimi, Herat’s governor, said on Saturday. “If we don’t start acting, I am afraid there might come a day where we can’t even collect the dead.” Mr. Rahimi lamented the fact that his province, at the center of the concern, still lacked basic funding. The central government, in a meeting chaired by President Ashraf Ghani two weeks ago, announced that it had allocated $ million for measures to prevent the spread of the virus and that a large share of it would be spent on Herat. But Mr. Rahimi said his province had only received $ 288, – and that sum hadn’t officially hit Herat’s accounts yet.- “We have had to borrow from companies to supply our hospitals,” he said.
In Herat, the doctors at the regional hospital that have dealt with processing the suspected cases said they were simply overwhelmed already. On Sunday, they had no masks until 16 am
“I haven’t gotten close to my own wife and children after I came from work, isolating myself in a room in case I am carrying it since we did not have the right equipment, ”said one doctor, who spoke on condition of anonymity fearing government retaliation. “When we say we are facing a shortage of equipment and that our staff is low, the officials say you can work or you can resign.”
- The virus could also derail efforts to start direct talks between the Afghan government and the Taliban.
- That process was already complicated. For weeks now, Zalmay Khalilzad, the U.S. envoy, has been in Kabul to try to work out a compromise over releasing thousands of Taliban prisoners , which the Afghan government has resisted, and getting the divided Afghan factions to agree on a united negotiating team.
the direct negotiations were scheduled to begin on March 16, with Qatar, Norway, and Germany talked about as likely hosts of the talks. Now, between the ongoing political crisis in Kabul and the advent of travel restrictions around the world because of the coronavirus, it is unclear when the talks could start even if the Afghan government side got back on track.
- Much of the fear stems from the fact that Afghanistan hasn’t even been able to get the situation in the worst-hit province under control, with medical staff lacking some of the most basic equipment and government officials decrying the continuing flow of People from Iran and the lack of funding.
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