Sad, Hospitals In Afghanistan Close Doors For New COVID-19 Patients

JAKARTA - Afghanistan's two main hospitals treating COVID-19 sufferers have closed their doors to new patients due to a shortage of beds, local health officials said on Monday, June 14.

Afghanistan is facing a third wave of the pandemic, with record numbers of infections and deaths reported amid a wave of violence - as US-led international forces withdrew and Taliban insurgents launched attacks.

"Both Afghan Japanese and Ali Jinnah hospitals have had to close their doors because they don't have beds or resources anymore," said the health official who asked not to be named because they are not authorized to speak publicly on the matter. This was reported by Antara from Reuters.

The official said the two hospitals, which are in the capital Kabul, face a persistent shortage of oxygen and other medical supplies.

Deputy Spokesperson for Afghanistan's Ministry of Health Mirwais Alizay said hospitals were sometimes closed due to higher patient numbers. However, he denied that the hospital was facing a serious supply shortage, saying the problem with oxygen had been resolved.

Masi Noori, a doctor at an Afghan-Japanese hospital, said the facility had been closed to new patients for several days because it ran out of beds.

Eid Wali, head of the Ali Jinnah hospital, said it had to stop accepting new patients when the beds for COVID-19 patients were full. The hospital will again accept new patients if there are beds available.

"We only have 50 beds for COVID cases, that's a major problem," Wali told Reuters.

As of Monday, Afghanistan reported 1,804 new cases of COVID-19 and 71 deaths from the disease.

Overall, 93,272 cases of COVID-19 and 3,683 deaths were recorded 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 vaccines urgently.

"Afghanistan's number of COVID-19 cases continues to rise. Without urgent international support to contain this spike, the situation could quickly spiral out of control," said Zaman Sultani, the group's South Asia researcher.

Afghanistan, with a population believed to be around 36 million, has administered about one 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 COVID-19 vaccine made by China's Sinopharm.