As the coronavirus pandemic has already infected more than 2.5 million people across the world and killed over 171,000, civil rights activists in Tajikistan are raising concerns about a possible unreported outbreak of the virus in the country, according to Radio Liberty.
Tajikistan has not officially declared any cases of COVID-19, the respiratory illness caused by the virus, but experts are reportedly skeptical of the claim, given the lack of transparency within the government and a lack of independent media.
Underscoring the level of distrust toward Tajikistan's authorities, 18 local civil-rights nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) and individual activists on April 20 asked the Ministry of Health and Social Protection of the Population to answer a series of questions to help clarify the epidemiological situation in the country.
In an open letter, the NGOs asked the ministry to publish statistics on cases of pneumonia, tuberculosis, and other respiratory illnesses for the first quarter of 2019 and 2020 in order to make a comparative analysis.
In recent weeks, a number of deaths in Tajikistan that were officially attributed to pneumonia, tuberculosis, and influenza have sparked concerns about a possible coronavirus outbreak in the country.
The 18 NGOs also raised concerns about the reliability of Chinese and Russian testing kits used in Tajikistan for coronavirus.
"Do the [testing kits] have an international certificate of quality and are they certified in Tajikistan? Were they approved by [the World Health Organization]?" their letter asks.
