At least 12 suspected coronavirus cases were registered in western Herat province in the past two days, local health officials said on Thursday.
Herat’s health department officials said that the test samples of the suspected cases were sent to Kabul province for testing.
“All suspected people have returned from Iran,” said Mohammad Asif Kabir, deputy head of the provincial health department, who added that “from 19 suspected coronavirus cases in the province, only one was positive, seven were negative and 12 others are currently being tested.”
The 12 potentially infected people were quarantined at a health center in the province, the officials said.
Wahidullah Mayar, a spokesman for the Health Ministry, said on Thursday that in the past 24 hours, 15 cases from Herat, Ghor, Kabul and Baghlan have been tested in Kabul, and so far five came back negative while the results from 10 other cases will be determined in the upcoming 24 hours.
“So far, in total 30 samples of suspected coronavirus cases have been sent to the Kabul laboratory,” he added.
The one case that is confirmed in Herat is a 35-year-old Afghan man who had traveled from Qom city in Iran.
In Iran, the virus has killed 26 while 245 cases of infection have been reported in the country, according to Iran’s health ministry.
President Ghani on Tuesday night ordered the Finance Ministry to provide $15M to the Ministry of Public Health to fund coronavirus prevention efforts.
The government also allocated $10M to the health ministry as a reserve.
