The World Health Organization (WHO) declared COVID-19 as a pandemic on 13 March 2020. It has spread to more than 200 countries, with over 35 million cases and 1 million deaths, with no guaranteed treatment but recommended preventive measures like hand hygiene and social distancing (1). As a donor-dependent conflict-affected country, Afghanistan faces challenges with health-care delivery and managing its double burden of diseases, given the limited health literacy and preventative measures, shortages of skilled health workers, and fragile health infrastructure (2,3). Afghanistan has a population of 32 million; 75% live in the rural areas and 80% living below the poverty line (4). Given Afghanistan’s close proximity to China, the Afghan Ministry of Public Health (MoPH) began discussing preparedness measures for COVID-19 as early as December 2019 and predicted that 80% of the population could be infected with upward of 125 000 deaths in Kabul alone if preventative measures were not followed (5–7).
展开▼
