Decline in Covid testing, vaccination in Afghanistan post-Taliban takeover: WHO

Sambad English Bureau Published On : Oct 6, 2021 at 4:46 PM Updated On : Oct 6, 2021 at 5:24 PM

Kabul: The Covid-19 testing and vaccination in Afghanistan have declined since the Taliban’s takeover of Kabul in mid-August, the World Health Organization (WHO) said on Wednesday.

“Since August, COVID-19 testing + vaccination has declined across Afghanistan. Around 1.6 million doses of vaccine could expire if not used quickly,” the organization wrote on Twitter, Xinhua news agency reported.

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To address this, the WHO and its partners are boosting testing and supporting the rollout of a vaccination campaign in 16 provinces of Afghanistan’s 34 provinces.

More than 155,000 Afghans have been infected with Covid-19 while over 7,200 have lost their lives to the disease since February 2020 when the first Covid-19 case was detected in the country, according to the latest WHO figures.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by Sambad English staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)

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