COVID-19 pandemic in Afghanistan

The Chinese pandemic was confirmed to have spread to Afghanistan in Herat, was confirmed on 24 February 2020.^[3]

COVID-19 pandemic in Afghanistan
Number of confirmed cases of COVID-19 by Province of Afghanistan as of 24 December 2020.[needs update]   Confirmed cases 1–199   Confirmed cases 200–499   Confirmed cases 500–999   Confirmed cases 1000–4999   Confirmed cases ≥5000
Disease	COVID-19
Virus strain	SARS-CoV-2
Location	Afghanistan
First outbreak	Wuhan, Hubei, China
Index case	Herat
Arrival date	24 February 2020 (5 years, 6 months and 1 day)
Confirmed cases	235,214[1]
Recovered	201,269[2]
Deaths	7,998[1]
Government website
moph.gov.af/en/covid-19-pandemic

Numbers

As of 14 May 2020, there have been 5,639 positive cases, with 691 recoveries and 136 deaths across all 34 provinces in the country. Kabul Province has the highest number of COVID-19 cases in Afghanistan at 1556, followed by Herat with 935 cases, and then Kandahar with 613 cases.^[4]

People returning from Iran

In March 2020, at least 150,000 Afghans returned from Iran, due to the outbreak across the country, at the Islam Qala border in Herat Province.

As many as over 1000 people a day crossed the border during the month. Between March and April 2020, the number of cases increased in Herat Province to over 200 cases.^{[5][6][7][8][9]}

At the Chaman and Torkham borders, over 60,000 Afghans returned from Pakistan in three days.^[10]

Response

On 14 March, President Ashraf Ghani, told the public to avoid large public gatherings and to pay attention to hygiene to prevent the spread of the disease.

On 18 March, the Ministry of Interior Affairs banned all large gatherings, including the closure of venues that attract large crowds such as entertainment places, sports grounds, swimming pools, fitness clubs and wedding halls.