After Nangarhar, Takhar also awaits ventilators

KABUL (MoPH) says 10 ventilators exist in northern Takhar province while local authorities confirm only four ventilators provided by Germany in the past.

After a Pajhwok Afghan News report about the smuggling of 32 ventilators to Pakistan, deputy public health minister Shafique Shahim said that 225 ventilators existed in hospitals nationwide.

He said the ministry had shared the list of 225 ventilators with the media and the Presidential Palace. These respiratory devices were distributed to 33 provinces of the country.

According to the MoPH list, Takhar received 10 ventilators, but Provincial Health Director Nasrullah Qari said the MoPH had provided no ventilators to them.

He said four ventilators existed in the Zonal Hospital from the past and they had been provided by Germany in assistance.

Pajhwok received a document dispatched from the Public Health Department to the MoPH. There is no mention of ventilators in this document.

This comes that Acting Public Health Minister Ahmad Jawad Usmani on June 26 on his twitter account shared a list of ventilators provided in assistance by some countries and organisations.

According to the list, 54 ventilators have been provided to Afghanistan Health Organisation (WHO), 10 by Turkey, one by Turkey TIKA, two by Iran, seven by Qatar Al Ghorafa and there was no mention of country or organisaiton that provided 26 other ventilators.

The list shows of 54 ventilators, 30 were distributed to 13 provinces while 24 others are in the centre.

But on June 25, Spokesperson for the MoPH Akmal Samsour said that China had provided four, Turkey three, Iran three and the WHO 27 ventilators to Afghanistan.

Without going into detail, Samsour said: “”The MoPH possessed 270 ventilators, including 40 dysfunctional.

He said ventilators were available until they were not required. “At a time when ventilators are direly needed, there is no professional engineer to repair them.”

The MoPH increased 17 more ventilators in its list after Pajhwok Afghan News head Danish Karokhel in his briefing to the Wolesi Jirga Health Commission mentioned 10 ventilators provided by Turkey and 10 more provided by Qatar.

Takhar Provincial Council Secretary Azam Afzali said that the MoPH had provided them no ventilator after the outbreak of coronavirus.

He said Germany donated four ventilators few years back to the Takhar Zonal Hospital.

He added some coronavirus patients died of respiratory difficulties as there were no ventilators in the province.

“We want the MoPH to dispatch ventilators to the province on emergency basis,” he said.

Civil Society Activist Jamshid Qandi said according the MoPH, no ventilator had been provided to Takhar for coronavirus patients.

Noorullah Taraki, deputy spokesperson of the MoPH, said they had information about four ventilators available in Takhar and it was acknowledgeable to them.

He said Takhar did not get ventilators recently and the respiratory devices registered against Takhar in the list were a wrong report provided to the ministry.

Nh/ma