On Saturday, May 30, 2020, the "General Assembly to Fight Coronavirus Crisis in Herat" held a virtual roundtable discussion on " Corona in Afghanistan: Confusion and the way out". Dr. Seyed Alam Shinwari, university professor/board member of Afghan Medical Professionals Association of America; Dr. Maisam Najafizada professor of Public Health Memorial University of Newfoundland, and Dr. Farhad Paiman head of Afghanistan National Public Health Association, were the speakers of the program. The event was moderated by Zohra Rasekh, head of Global Watch Group.
Dr. Farhad Payman delivered his speech in three parts: 1) the government's management of the fight against Corona crisis, 2) current challenges 3) and people's response to the pandemic. With the increase in the number of people infected with the coronavirus and lack of sufficient facilities to deal with the virus, preventive treatments are the only solution, he believed. There were many challenges in health sector, including a shortage of health workers, he said. In his opinion, although lifting quarantine and restrictions has taken place earlier than planned; but if it didn't happen at all, there would have been more infected people.
Further, in his opening remarks, Dr. Shinwari examined Corona crisis at the international and national level. He said the outbreak of infectious diseases in the past has left lessons to be learned in terms of strategy and creating specific institutions to combat the epidemic by successful countries' example at the international level. In his opinion, the government has acted poorly in initial preparation to confront the Coronavirus, which has caused further spread of the virus. Meanwhile, Shinwari believes the government has spent its resources of Corona crisis on unnecessary issues. Shinwari also referred to rumors and misinformation that have confused people. In addition to fighting against the Corona crisis, there should be a fight against the crisis of rumors and dissemination of false information to people.
Dr. Najafizada spoke about the measures that should be taken to prevent further spread of the virus, and pointed out four points: 1) increase testing 2) track call and its rate; 3) separation and isolation, 4) increasing hospital services, including training health workers, equipping ICU, and protective equipment for health workers. He also referred to the spread of false information among people. He believes that to combat this, the information must be confirmed by a reputable source, and there must be a second source to confirm the accuracy of this information. He called on the Ministry of Information and Culture, the Ministry of Public Health and the private sector to establish a reference to verify or refute these information.