ISLAMABAD: The government has closed the Torkham border crossing with Afghanistan amid a surge of Covid-19 cases in the war-battered country, Minister for Interior Sheikh Rasheed Ahmed said Tuesday.
The health crisis is spiralling out of control in Afghanistan, with cases rising 2,400 percent in the past month alone, hospitals filling up and medical resources quickly running out.
A Reuters tally showed the country has reported 123,465 infections and 5,107 coronavirus-related deaths since the pandemic began early last year. It has also administered at least 886,854 doses of Covid-19 vaccines so far.
Highways from Kabul and Islamabad pass through Torkham, the main border crossing at the end of the Khyber Pass which connects the town of Landi Kotal in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa to Peshawar.
“On the advice of the NCOC [National Command and Operation Center], all types of immigration departure and arrival will be close from today at Torkham Border till the fresh guidelines of NCOC,” Rasheed said in a tweet posted Tuesday.
On the advise of the NCOC all types of immigration departure and arrival will be close from today at torkham Border till the fresh Guidelines of NCOC (Ministry of Interior) @OfficialNcoc
— Sheikh Rashid Ahmed (@ShkhRasheed) July 6, 2021
On Monday, the NCOC announced safety protocols for 3,000 students from Afghanistan directing them to undergo a mandatory 10-day quarantine period.
The session was chaired by its head and Minister for Planning and Development Asad Umar. The forum was informed that the students were studying in various educational institutions across the country. An effective coronavirus testing regime had been installed to test the students on arrival, the body was informed.
It added that the students with positive samples will be sent back while the rest of them will be kept in compulsory quarantine.
In line with the safety protocols, at the culmination of their quarantine, they will be vaccinated with the Covid-19 vaccine.
