More than 18 million people have been infected with the coronavirus worldwide (representation)
Kabul:
Almost a third of the Afghan population – or 10 million people – has been infected with the coronavirus, according to estimates by the Ministry of Health released on Wednesday.
The figure comes from a survey based on antibody tests of around 9,500 people across the country, with technical support from the World Health Organization, Health Minister Ahmad Jawad Osmani said during a press briefing.
The survey estimated that 31.5 percent of the population had contracted the virus, with the highest infection rate in Kabul where more than half of the city’s five million residents are believed to have been infected.
But the country of about 32 million people has limited screening capacity and has officially declared only 36,000 cases and more than 1,200 deaths.
“A second wave of infection is happening all over the world and we cannot be an exception. We will use the results of this investigation to better prepare for a possible second wave,” Osmani said.
More than 18 million people around the world have been infected with the virus since it emerged in China late last year.
The virus entered Afghanistan in February as thousands of migrants returned from neighboring Iran, which at the time was the region most affected by the virus.
Since then, Afghanistan, already ravaged by decades of war, has been ravaged by COVID-19.
An investigation into the death rate from the coronavirus in Afghanistan is underway.
(Except for the title, this story was not edited by GalacticGaming staff and is posted from a syndicated feed.)
