Afghanistan civil society position paper on Covid pandemic and vaccination (2022)

EXECUTVE SUMMARY

This position paper on Covid pandemic and vaccination was developed by GCAP Afghanistan. In this paper the overall situation of the Covid pandemic and vaccination in the country has been covered. The very first confirmed case in Afghanistan was confirmed on 24^th February 2020 while in 23th March 2020 the first death case was confirmed in Afghanistan. Following the initial case, numbers rose in March 2020 due to the return of Afghans from Iran, which had a high caseload. The Government responded early with school closures and lockdown measures. A Ministry of Public Health survey in August 2020 estimated that one-third of the population had contracted COVID-19. Overtime, 7783 death cases are registered in Afghanistan with  a total of overall 194614 Covid19 registered cases.. The vaccine doses administered in the country till date is 11,588,893 out of which only 30% of the marginalized communities covered. However, more than 60% of the vaccinated marginalized community didn’t opt to take the second dose of the vaccine. AstraZeneca Vaccine, Sinopharm Vaccine and Johnson and Johnson vaccine were arrived in Afghanistan in different phases of the pandemic. Internally displaced people, children with disabilities and street workers are among the most marginalized affected by the impact of Covid19. The vaccination priority was given to Patients, doctors and armed forces of Afghanistan. The vaccines were then easily available for groups of people in Afghanistan in July 2021. For the time being, the vaccine is available in all the health facilities of Afghanistan for all the groups of people free of cost, however, 70% of the communities reported unavialibility of vaccine for the most marginalized communities at the pandemic peak. 97% of women in the marginalized community reported an increase in violence against them during the pandemic. The most affected sector during the pandemic is the education sector where number of student failed to attempt their school for more than a year.

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