Jakarta, CNBC Indonesia – The wave of the Covid-19 pandemic is still getting worse in Afghanistan. It was even reported that Covid-19 victims were snaking and filling the capacity of several hospitals (RS) in the South Asian country.
Quotes Reuters, Currently the Covid-19 wards at two hospitals in the capital Kabul are 100% filled. This made both of them close the door for incoming patients.
“Both Afghanistan Japan and Ali Jinnah hospitals have had to close their doors because they don’t have beds or resources anymore,” a health official said.
Apart from being full, it is reported that both hospitals have been facing a continuous shortage of oxygen and other medical supplies.
Mirwais Alizay, deputy spokesman for the health ministry, said hospitals were sometimes closed due to higher patient numbers but he denied that hospitals were facing a serious supply shortage, saying the problem with oxygen had been resolved.
Eid Wali, head of the Ali Jinnah hospital, said he had to stop accepting new patients when his Covid-19 beds were full.
“We only have 50 beds for Covid cases, that’s a major problem,” Wali told Reuters.
As of Monday (14/6/2021) Afghanistan recorded 1,804 new Covid-19 cases and 71 deaths from the disease. Overall, there were 93,272 cases and 3,683 deaths but doctors said many cases may have been missed due to low testing rates.
Human rights group Amnesty International said last week the government needed to get more oxygen and a vaccine urgently.
“Afghanistan’s number of Covid-19 cases continues to rise,” said Zaman Sultani, Amnesty International’s South Asia researcher.
“Without urgent international support to contain this spike, the situation could quickly spiral out of control,” he said.
The country with a population believed to be around 36 million has administered around 1 million doses of the vaccine, mostly to frontline health workers and members of the security forces. Last week, Afghanistan received 700,000 doses of the vaccine made by China’s Sinopharm.
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