Nearly a third of Afghanistan's population — or 10 million people — has been infected with the coronavirus, according to health ministry estimates published Wednesday.
The figure comes from a survey based on antibody tests on around 9,500 people across the country, with technical support from the World Health Organization (WHO), health minister Ahmad Jawad Osmani said at a press briefing on August 5.
According to Geo News, the survey estimated that 31.5% of the population had contracted the virus.
The Afghan capital Kabul of more than five million people has been worst hit, with about 53 percent of the residents infected.
“In Kabul, 46 percent of children were infected by the virus, but they don’t have symptoms. And 57 percent of adults were also infected in Kabul,” Mr. Osmani said.
The rate of infection in the east of the country was nearly 43 percent, the west 34 percent, and the northeast 32.4 percent.
The infection rates were reportedly lowest in central parts of the country with 25 percent of adults and 14 percent of children infected.
But the country of around 32 million people has only limited testing capacity and has officially declared just 36,000 cases and more than 1,200 deaths.
"A second wave of the infection is happening everywhere in the world and we cannot be an exception. We will use the findings of this survey to better prepare ourselves for a possible second wave," Osmani said.
The virus reportedly entered Afghanistan in February as thousands of migrants returned from neighboring Iran, which at the time was the region's worst-hit nation for the virus.
Since then Afghanistan, already wracked by decades of war, has been ravaged by COVID-19.
A survey on the mortality rate of coronavirus Afghanistan is under way.
