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Kabul city has been locked down as authorities scramble to contain the wild spread of the coronavirus outbreak amid gloomy forecasts of virus infections and fatalities
AT News
KABUL: Officials are imposing strict quarantine restrictions in capital Kabul city as they try to control the outbreak of the coronavirus in the country.
All shops except shops selling necessities are being shut down and restaurants will have to confine themselves to food catering and delivering. Intercity commuting and buses will stop for vehicles with more than 4 passengers. Travel from and to Kabul is also banned and all government offices and institutions will be close for 3 weeks.
Afghanistan has more than 110 coronavirus cases. Three people have died.
As coronavirus pandemic is threatening to choke Afghanistan with severe healthcare issues, authorities are imposing strict measures. The government has banned in-city butcher houses to be relocated to the outskirts and congested places such as shrines, parks, public bathhouses, schools, religious madrasas and educational institutions will be shuttered temporarily.
Health institutions, pharmacies, security institutions, municipality’s sanitation department, counter-coronavirus task force, banks and exchanges will be exempt from the draconian measures.
Afghanistan’s Public Health Ministry has said that a coronavirus patient has recovered and discharged from a local clinic in Samangan province, the fifth to have recovered from the disease in the country. According to its figures, another patient in Daikundi, one in Kapisa and two patients in Herat have earlier recovered from coronavirus.
The ministry’s spokesman, Wahidullah Mayar, said on Saturday that 102 suspicious cases have been examined in Kabul and Herat out of whim 15 have tested positive over the past 24 hours – 11 cases in Herat, 3 cases in Farah and another positive case in Ghazni province.
Acting Interior Minister Masoud Andarabi has said people will have to abide by the quarantine measures, otherwise face the legal action by the police.
Earlier, health ministry warned that 25 million people in Afghanistan could become infected if they don’t take health warnings serious. Minister Ferozuddin Feroz told a news briefing that 110,000 people could die due to coronavirus infection.
