The Fourth Wave of the COVID-19 in Afghanistan: The Way Forward.

ABSTRACT

The COVID-19 pandemic hit Afghanistan at a time when the country was most vulnerable, with a fragile healthcare system and unable to contain the disease, and meet the needs of the vulnerable people. The country has gone through four waves of the disease thus far. An analysis of the COVID-19 cases reported by the District Health Information Software-2 shows that the fourth wave has just passed in March 2022. With the resurgence of the COVID-19 cases in other countries, it is likely that the next wave might not be too far. Challenges such as the lack or insufficiency of donor funds, unstable political situation, inadequate healthcare services, insufficient healthcare workers and diagnostic capacity, illiteracy of people, poor economy and shortage of the COVID-19 vaccine are greatly threatening the nation. The de facto authority does not seem to have a clear plan to fight against the pandemic. Therefore, the international community, civil societies, healthcare workers and other stakeholders should stay alert and combine their efforts to rescue an already plagued nation. Fortunately, many COVID-19 hospitals and laboratories have resumed their activities with the funds coming from international donors. However, to combat the infection in the long term, there seems to be a great need to integrate the COVID-19 services in the existing package of healthcare services, ie the Sehatmandi project. Moreover, awareness campaigns should be continued to keep the most vulnerable groups safe and protected. Vaccination services also need to be speeded up to have a significant portion of people immunized. Public willingness towards getting the vaccine should be increased through awareness campaigns mostly conducted by social media volunteers and healthcare workers.