Mr Nazari said he has knocked on the door of several embassies, but so far, he has received “diplomatic answers” – but no vaccine doses. In part, the increase has been blamed on uninterrupted travel with India, bringing the highly contagious Delta variant, first identified in India. By WHO recommendations, anything higher than 5% shows officials are not testing widely enough, allowing the virus to spread unchecked. For vaccines, Afghanistan so far has relied on a donation of AstraZeneca doses from India and purchases of Sinopharm from China. Covax, set up with UN help to try to prevent vaccine inequities, has struggled to fill the gap.

Source: Irish Independent June 05, 2021 12:11 UTC