Healthcare providers in Afghanistan, especially COVID-19 hospitals, are struggling to continue serving patients as they lack critical materials and facilities such as heating, fuel, power, food, vaccines, medication, and medical equipment, according to officials on Monday.

Most of the 37 COVID-19 hospitals nationwide were shut down due to budget shortfalls after the Taliban took over the government earlier this year, said Health Ministry spokesman Javid Khazhir told Anadolu Agency in an interview.

Noting that omicron variant of coronavirus had no yet been detected in the country, Khazhir said the Taliban government was in contact with local and international aid organizations amid the risk of humanitarian disaster if the new strain spreads across the country before hospitals could be reactivated.

According to the spokesman, the World Bank directly funds COVID-19 hospitals in the country and had promised to keep supporting them until 2024. However, the organization suspended aid as of November, paving the way for more difficulty ahead.

Hospitals have been hit hard as international funds that once met their costs dried up after Afghan reserves in the US were blocked in reaction to the Taliban gaining control in the country.

International organizations, and the UN in particular, have warned of a looming humanitarian disaster exacerbated by the move, deepening the poverty of millions of Afghans as the winter sets in.

Power cuts in hospitals have become a regular occurrence even as their buildings remain unheated amid a shortage of fuel that has also prevented them from turning on their generators.

Ambulances have also been unable operate due to the shortage, while hospital staff have not been paid in months and medical equipment and drugs fall short. Also, some of the doctors fled the country after Taliban takeover.

Vaccine donations

Khazhir said China had provided 800,000 vaccines so far, while an additional 200,000 jabs are soon to be delivered by Beijing and the total figure expected to eventually reach 3 million.

He went on to say that Australia also pledged to provide 1 million doses of COVID-19 vaccines, adding that Afghanistan was not going through a vaccine shortage at the moment.

Sirinaga Nasiri, head of emergency unit at the Afghan-Japanese COVID-19 hospital, said only four coronavirus hospitals were operating in the county at the moment and patients were flocking in from neighboring provinces.

Nasiri said the hospital ran out of COVID-19 vaccines in the past week and that the Health Ministry had not provided any information on resupply.

He further noted that the COVID-19 figures in Afghanistan were not realistic and that it was almost impossible to obtain the accurate data as the health sector had sustained a heavy blow under the Taliban.

"The health sector was hit following the political transition. With the WHO cutting funds to Afghanistan, the daily reporting system for COVID-19 collapsed, as well. So, the count of COVID-19 cases in Afghanistan is not clear," he said.

Some 95% of hospitals have been adversely affected after the international organizations cut aid, he said.

"We request that the WHO not abandon Afghanistan in such a period," he said, underlining the importance of that aid and especially coronavirus-related materials./aa

At least one patient infected with the COVID-19 omicron variant has died in the UK, Britain’s prime minister confirmed Monday.

"Sadly, yes, omicron is producing hospitalizations, and sadly at least one patient has been confirmed to have died with omicron," Boris Johnson said, speaking at a vaccine center in Paddington, west London.

Urging people to set aside “the idea that this is somehow a milder version of the virus,” Johnson stressed “the sheer pace at which it accelerates through the population. So the best thing we can do is all get our boosters.”

“Here in the capital it probably represents about 40% of the cases. By tomorrow it’ll be the majority of the cases and it’s increasing the whole time,” he added.

Last week Health Minister Sajid Javid said omicron is spreading much faster than other variants, adding that at the current trajectory omicron cases in the country could surpass 1 million by the end of December.

The UK on Sunday raised its COVID-19 alert level to Level 4 – its second-highest level – amid a surge in cases of the omicron variant.

Level 4, according to the government’s guidance, means "a COVID-19 epidemic is in general circulation; transmission is high and direct COVID-19 pressure on health care services is widespread and substantial or rising.”

The country had been at Level 3 since May.

To date the UK has reported 3,137 cases of the new variant.

The UK has recorded over 10.8 million cases and more than 146,400 deaths since the start of the pandemic.

Prevalence of omicron could mean eased travel rules

Later, Health Secretary Sajid Javid said the omicron variant currently makes up 20% of cases in England and that its spread means strict travel rules for arrivals could be eased.

“Given that we already know that the omicron variant is fast becoming the dominant variant in our capital city, spreading rapidly throughout the country, the justification for having those rules is minimized,” Javid said in a statement in parliament.

“It’s something that I’ve already raised with my colleagues in the Department for Transport and I do hope that we can act quickly,” he added.

His statement came in response to opposition Labour MP Ben Bradshaw’s call for the end to “very draconian, costly and complex” travel rules that have recently been introduced to stop the spread of the new variant./aa

The UN special rapporteur on human rights in Myanmar started his first visit to Bangladesh on Monday and said he looks forward to meeting Rohingya that have been forced to flee their homes.

“The world must not forget the roughly one million Rohingya from Myanmar forced to run for their lives from the military’s genocidal attack against them,” said Tom Andrews in a statement.

“The Rohingya want nothing more than to return to their homes in Myanmar when conditions allow for their safe, dignified, and sustainable return.”

Andrew's Dec. 13-19 visit covers Dhaka, the Rohingya refugee camps in Cox’s Bazar, and the island of Bhasan Char, where many Rohingya have been relocated.

He said he will meet representatives of the Bangladeshi government, UN officials, representatives of civil society organizations, and, “most importantly,” members of the Rohingya community.

“While the Myanmar junta continues to systematically violate the people of Myanmar’s human rights, it is critical that the global community support those who have been forced to flee their homes in Myanmar for Bangladesh,” Andrews noted.

The UN expert expressed gratitude to the Bangladesh government for assisting in the visit.

“I look forward to meeting with Rohingya, to listen to them, lend support, and work together with them towards sustainable long-term solutions and pursuing accountability for the atrocities the military committed against them in Myanmar,” Andrews said.

Bangladesh is now home to more than 1.2 million Rohingya refugees, most of whom fled a brutal military crackdown in their home country of Myanmar in August 2017.

Since Aug. 25, 2017, nearly 24,000 Rohingya Muslims have been killed while more than 34,000 were thrown into fires, over 114,000 beaten, and as many as 18,000 Rohingya women and girls raped, according to a report by the Ontario International Development Agency.

The special rapporteur’s findings will form part of an update presented to the UN Human Rights Council in March 2022, said the council./aa

Israeli authorities on Monday released Palestinian icon Sheikh Raed Salah after 17 months in prison, according to his defense lawyer.

“Salah has been released from prison and is on his way home,” Omar Khamaysi told Anadolu Agency.

Waving green banners, scores of Palestinians stood outside Megiddo prison in northern Israel to welcome Salah.

The Higher Follow-Up Committee for Arab Citizens of Israel, the highest representative body of Arab residents of Israel, is also planning to organize a reception ceremony for Salah in his hometown Umm al-Fahm.

"Sheikh Salah was unfairly imprisoned and paid the price of preserving the principles of our people and defending the blessed Al-Aqsa Mosque," the committee said in a statement on Sunday.

Salah, the leader of the northern branch of Islamic Movement in Israel, was detained in August 2017 and indicted for alleged incitement over his criticism of the erection of metal detectors at Jerusalem’s flashpoint Al-Aqsa Mosque compound.

He was sentenced to 28 months in prison by an Israeli court. He served 11 months in jail, half of which was in solitary confinement before he was moved to house arrest.

After two years under house arrest, in August 2020, Salah began a 17-month jail term on incitement charges.

A staunch defender of the Palestinian rights, Salah has staged a number of protests against Israeli policies and campaigned against the expansion of Israeli settlements in the occupied territories.

Since 2015, Israel has prohibited Salah from traveling outside the country for reasons ostensibly related to “national security”.

The Islamic Movement in Israel, which Salah founded in 1971, has been outlawed by the Israeli authorities since 2015. In recent years, the same authorities have repeatedly arrested Salah and shut down dozens of organizations, including a number of charities, over their alleged links to his group./aa

Four more bodies have been found in the rubble of buildings wrecked in Saturday night’s explosion in Sicily, raising the death toll to seven.

Two people are still missing after the blast, suspected to be caused by a gas leak, destroyed and damaged six buildings in the southern town of Ravanusa.

Bodies of four people were pulled out of the rubble, including a nine months pregnant woman, authorities said on Monday.

According to officials, an accumulation of gas was the most likely reason for the explosion, which may have been sparked by an elevator or a household appliance.

Gas grip operator Italgas said it had not received any reports of leaks and no problems were detected during routine inspections in 2020 and this year./aa