On Thursday, April 16, 2020, the "General Assembly to Fight Coronavirus Crisis in Herat" held an online roundtable discussion: "Practical Solutions to Fight Coronavirus Pandemic". Mohammad Dauod Altaf, Team Leader Health Emergency at World Health Organization for Afghanistan; Dr. Khushal Nabizada, Public Health Specialist and Country Director of Action for Development; and Dr. Noorullah Arian, Anesthesiologist, were the speakers of the program. The event was moderated by Mohammad Rafi Rafiq Sediqi, Chief Operational Officer at Khurshid TV.
Dr. Altaf said that the World Health Organization (WHO) declared a state of emergency on January 29 due to Covid-19 outbreak; following that, countries around the world took precautionary measures. Also in early February, the organization began its work with the Afghan Ministry of Public Health, whose first joint action was to train health workers and focus on the country's border areas. According to Dr. Altaf, the next joint effort was to establish corona diagnostic and treatment centers in Kabul and the provinces; currently there are more than 2,000 beds ready for treatment. He added that there are currently seven Corona diagnostic centers in Afghanistan, two in Kabul and five in provinces.
Dr. Nabizada said that the Afghan government is implementing a strategy in the fight against Coronavirus that has been undertaken by other countries in the world. The efficiency of this strategy is based on the capacity of responsible institutions and the cooperation of the people in this regard. According to Dr. Nabizada, the most important thing in this fight is unity and solidarity between institutions. On the one hand, to prevent further spread of the virus, they invite people to take social distancing serious; and on the other hand, they gather hundreds of people together to help. According to him, one of our main problems is the detection of incidents. There are still no small teams to record incidents in the districts, when there must be.
Dr. Arian spoke about the Intensive Care Unit (ICU) and said that Afghanistan's health facilities cannot be compared with other countries. Forty thousand beds should have been created in the first step, about two hundred of them should have been allocated to the ICU, he believes. Dr. Arian noted that having trained staff in the Intensive Care Unit is another necessity in this area. Most nurses in the Intensive Care Unit have not received the necessary training, which requires re-examination, he added.