KABUL (SW) – The overall deaths caused by the coronavirus pandemic across the country surged beyond 5,000 on Thursday, health officials confirmed.
As per the fresh figures by the Ministry of Public Health, 86 more lives were lost to COVID-19 and 1940 new infections were recorded in the past 24 hours while 912 patients recovered after initially contracting infections.
- Amid surging infections, US pledges 3M dosses of vaccines for Afghanistan
- Maiden consignment of Indian Covid-19 vaccine lands in Kabul
With this, the overall number of infections mounted to 122,156 while the corresponding deaths went up to 5048.
Earlier this week, health authorities blamed the delta variant of COVID-19 (first detected in India) for the alarming spike in infections and deaths.
Acting Minister of Public Health Waheed Majrooh told a news conference in Kabul on Saturday that he had examined 19 suspicious samples of coronavirus in the central laboratories of the ministry, of which 11 were Delta or Indian and 8 were Alpha or English variants of the virus.
According to him, the reason for the worsening situation or rising death toll due to the pandemic in the country is the high prevalence of Indian variant.
This comes as the reports suggest the U.S. plans to give Afghanistan three million doses of the Johnson & Johnson vaccine as the country is facing a surge of coronavirus cases. The official said the doses could be sent as early as next week along with other supplies such as oxygen.
ENDS
