KABUL: Islamabad’s decision to seal the border with Afghanistan on Friday to contain the spread of coronavirus has affected Afghan patients who have been regularly coming to Pakistan for medical treatment.
Many Afghans for years have been seeking medical help abroad, as their own health infrastructure has been devastated by decades of war. Most of them choose Pakistan or India. Medical trips to the latter are now impossible too as New Delhi suspended all existing visas last week.
“If you count the number of patients traveling to India and Pakistan on a daily basis, it will be hundreds, hundreds from across Afghanistan,” Timoor Shah a travel agent in Kabul told Arab News.
“So those who need follow-up medical checks up or other routine treatment are stuck and in trouble. The closure will remain for some time, so I can say that thousands are affected,” he said.
At one of Kabul’s main bus stations where vehicles take passengers by road to Pakistan, scores who had visas had to cancel their visit, as the Pakistani government on Friday evening announced the closure of the country’s borders with Afghanistan and Iran.
“It is a blow for people like me and others who have valid visas and need to go to Pakistan for medication and now can’t go. It is really shocking and very tragic,” said Rahim Shah, 36, who was accompanying his ailing mother.
Health Ministry spokesman Nizamuddin Jalil told Arab News that while the border closure had indeed affected a number of patients traveling for treatment, Afghan health standards were good enough and medical help does not have to be sought abroad.
He said that mobile health teams have been sent to attend to ailing nationals stranded in border regions.
“Our health services have improved. We have done our best to reduce the reliance of Afghans on medication (abroad),” Jalil said, but added that the government’s current priority is coronavirus response.
At least 21 persons have tested positive for the virus, but testing remains limited, raising fears that the number of infected is much higher.
To contain the outbreak, the Afghan government on Saturday suspended all educational institutions and banned mass gatherings, including sporting events and public celebrations of Nowruz, the Persian New Year, which marks the beginning of spring.
