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SITUATION OVERVIEW
• Conflict: armed clashes are reported to gradually be stabilizing; however, massive humanitarian and health needs continue to unfold across the country. No significant reports of increased trauma casualties reported over the past week.
• Urgent health issues: based on a WHO assessment by our staff in all 34 provinces, 97% of over 2,200 health facilities are functional, with anecdotal reports of fewer women seeking health care.
Some provincial health managers and staff are not reporting to duty due to security concerns.
Health facilities across the country are experiencing critical shortage in medical supplies and operational cost and concerns about gap in availability of medicines are mounting. Conflict has impacted COVID-19 vaccination and is delaying routine immunization, which could lead to secondary health emergencies.
• COVID-19: Afghanistan reports over 152K COVID-19 cases and nearly 7,083 deaths as of 23 August 2021 with a PCR positivity rate of around 20%. However, COVID-19 response efforts hang in the balance as potential risk of COVID-19 transmission given current deteriorated humanitarian situation especially among IDPs clusters is anticipated. Around 5 % of the population has received at least one COVID-19 vaccination. The trend of decline in testing continues. Last week tests rates declined by 77% in both public and private laboratories, compared to the week before. Under reporting of COVID-19 cases is expected due to this noticeable decline in testing.