Nearly 70,000 Afghans Return Home after Spread of COVID-19 in Iran: Official
TEHRAN (Tasnim) – Nearly 70,000 Afghans have returned home from Iran in the past 20 days following the outbreak of the novel coronavirus in the country, an Afghan official said.
More health workers and better testing facilities were needed to cope with the increasing number of returnees, warned Jawed Nadim, head of the refugees repatriation department in the western province of Herat, which borders Iran, AFP reported.
Health workers "only ask (returnees) some questions and test their temperature", Nadim said, adding, "This is not enough."
They were allowed back in after Kabul reopened land crossings for Afghans wanting to return home.
Afghanistan has 21 confirmed infections so far, most of them in Herat.
Public Health Minister Ferozuddin Feroz announced Monday the government would build a 300-bed facility in Herat to tackle the outbreak.
"With that, the capacity of the health facilities in Herat will increase to 1,000 beds," he said.
Speaking at a daily press conference on Monday, Iranian Health Ministry Spokesman Kianoosh Jahanpoor said the death toll from COVID-19 in Iran has risen to 853 after 129 patients died over the past 24 hours.
The number of people tested positive for the coronavirus in the country has hit 14,991, he noted, saying 1,053 new cases have been detected since Sunday.
A total of 4,996 patients have been discharged from the hospital after recovering from the disease, he added.
The World Health Organization (WHO) has declared Europe the “epicenter” of the pandemic which originated in China.
To date, an estimated 162,687 people have been infected worldwide, with just under half of them in China (81,003 cases). An estimated 6,065 people have died, 3,085 of them in China.