Afghanistan running out of O2 as Covid surge worsens

Kabul: Afghanistan is racing to ramp up supplies of oxygen as a deadly third surge of COVID-19 worsens, a senior health official told The Associated Press in an interview Saturday.

The government is installing oxygen supply plants in 10 provinces where up to 65 per cent of those tested in some areas are COVID positive, health ministry spokesman Ghulam Dastigir Nazari said.

By WHO recommendations, anything higher than 5 per cent shows officials aren't testing widely enough, allowing the virus to spread unchecked.

By WHO recommendations, anything higher than 5 per cent shows officials aren't testing widely enough, allowing the virus to spread unchecked. Afghanistan carries out barely 4,000 tests a day and often much less. Afghanistan's 24-hour infection count has also continued its upward climb from 1,500 at the end of May when the health ministry was already calling the surge a crisis, to more than 2,300 this week. Since the pandemic outbreak, Afghanistan is reporting 101,906 positive cases and 4,122 deaths. But those figures are likely a massive undercount, registering only deaths in hospitals not the far greater numbers who die at

home.