On Thursday, March 26, 2020, the Afghan Institute for Strategic Studies (AISS), held an online roundtable discussion “How to deal with the #Coronavirus”. The purpose of this roundtable was to discuss the experiences of other countries in the fight against the Coronavirus pandemic, as well as effective ways to counter it. Dr. Bahram Amir Ahmadian, Professor at Tehran University; Dr. Wahid Majrooh, Adviser to the Minister of Public Health; Shameem Ahmad Nawber, Tsinghua University, China, and Ms. Zohreh Rasekh, Former Director of Human Rights and Women International Affairs, Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Afghanistan, were the speakers of the program.
At the beginning of the program, Dr. Majrooh briefed about the Ministry of Public Health's awareness program in preventing the outbreak of the virus. He spoke about the MoPh's efforts to establish facilities in the fight against coronavirus. In addition to the existing two laboratories, MoPH has started establishing five new laboratories to test COVID-19. The next step will be to increase this number to ten laboratories in the country. Likewise, there will be six to ten thousand new beds to care for the patients of this virus, he said.
Dr. Ahmadian spoke about the experiences of Iran, and had some recommendations for Afghanistan. He said, an authorized team is required that can mobilize resources to effectively fight the virus. Additionally, he emphasized that only businesses should be open that fulfill people’s primary and essential needs; the rest should be closed. This will help prevent the virus to spread.
Ms. Zohreh Rasekh suggested different stages to fight the virus to the government of Afghanistan. According to her, there are three stages to fight the virus: 1) To not let the virus enter a country; 2) To slow the spread of the virus; and 3) To minimize the victims for special care. Ministry of Public Health needs to take serious measures to prepare an effective number of healthcare workers and ICU rooms, she added.
Mr. Nawbar had suggestions for the government of Afghanistan according to China's experiences in the fight against the coronavirus. He asserted that one of China's most successful experiences was raising accurate and timely awareness; thus it prevented the spread of faulty assumptions. Meanwhile, people's reaction and cooperation was significant. Another point that really helped the situation was online shopping; people could buy all their necessities online and have them delivered to their homes.