US Afghan embassy in lockdown amid covid crisis. Call for mandatory Vax for US gov employees
AFSA which represents the US diplomatic corps has calld on Prez Biden to make vax mandatory for all US gov employees unless there is medical or religious exception. There is reported 2400% jump in covid infections in a month in Afghanistan housing tens of thousands of Americans currently in various military, contractor, diplomatic positions. UN Office suspects the Delta variant, first detected in India, could be responsible for the recent spike in Afghan cases.
USA Today
COVID-19 surge in Afghanistan hits US embassy, prompting lockdown, onsite wards
COVID infection rates have surged in Afghanistan by 2400% over the past month, according to the International Federation of Red Cross.
21 hours ago
WASHINGTON – A dangerous surge in COVID-19 cases in Afghanistan has gripped the U.S. embassy in Kabul, forcing an immediate lockdown and the creation of temporary, on-site COVID-19 wards to care for oxygen-dependent patients, according to an internal memo.
"COVID-19 is surging in the Mission. 114 of our colleagues now have COVID and are in isolation; one has died, and several have been medevaced," reads the notice from Shane Pierce, an employee in the embassy's health unit.
His memo says that intensive care units at a U.S. military hospital "are at full capacity," triggering the need to set up temporary on-site units for staff who need oxygen.
The outbreak has prompted the American Foreign Service Association, which represents the U.S. diplomatic corps, to call on President Joe Biden to require all U.S. government employees overseas to be vaccinated, unless they have medical or religious exceptions.
"This is the most serious outbreak (at a U.S. diplomatic facility), and I believe it’s the first time, at least recently, that we’ve had an entire embassy on lockdown," said Eric Rubin, a former ambassador to Bulgaria and head of the foreign service association.
"This is such a truly worrying and sad situation that we feel necessary to go public and just to say, 'Enough,'" he said. "It should be a condition of employment. People should not be allowed to endanger the lives of fellow citizens, their fellow employees."
The State Department press office did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the mandatory vaccine proposal.
Earlier on Thursday,Ned Price, the State Department's chief spokesman, noted the surge in cases at the embassy in Kabul coincides with "an intense third wave of COIVD-19 cases" across Afghanistan.
COVID infection rates have surged in Afghanistan by 2,400% over the past month, according to the International Federation of Red Cross
usatoday.com/story/news/world/2021/06/17/covid-afghanistan-us-embassy-kabul-hit-virus-third-wave/7729552002/
Coronavirus Breaks Out at US Embassy in Afghanistan
June 17, 2021
The International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC) warned in a statement that infection rates in Afghanistan have climbed by 2,400 percent in the past month. It noted 34 percent of tests returned positive results last week, pointing to many thousands of undiagnosed infections.
“Afghanistan is at a crisis point in the battle to contain COVID-19 as hospital beds are full to capacity in the capital Kabul and in many areas,” an IFRC statement quoted Nilab Mobarez, acting president of the Afghan Red Crescent Society, as saying.
“This surge is fast spiraling out of control adding huge pressures on our fragile health system and millions of people living in poverty,” said Mobarez. “We fear that we are just a heartbeat away from the kind of horror that we have already seen in countries like India and Nepal.”
FILE - An Afghan security officer stands guard at the Green Zone, which is home to a number of foreign embassies, in Kabul, Afghanistan, May 25, 2021.
India’s COVID-19 outbreak has broken records for cases and deaths, though daily case numbers have been declining there since mid-May. But the Indian variant has spread to neighboring Nepal, where it is causing massive infections and straining a less-resourced health system.
India recorded 29.7 million cases and 382,000 deaths while Nepal reported 614,000 and 8,558 as of Thursday.
The U.N. Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs suspected Thursday the Delta variant, first detected in India, could be responsible for the recent spike in Afghan cases.
“While Afghanistan lacks in-country facilities to test for the variant that originated in India, concern over the variant’s spread is high as many of the patients hospitalized over the last four weeks have a history of recently returning from India or having contact with people who have,” the agency said in a statement.
Meanwhile, hospitals around Afghanistan have refused to accept new coronavirus patients, citing a lack of beds and oxygen shortages.
The global agency was working with Afghan authorities to provide more resources and try and boost medical oxygen production, said Necephor Mghendi, the head of the Afghanistan country delegation for IFRC.
“More international support is needed to help win this race against this virus, so we can save thousands of lives,” he said.
Afghan officials and aid groups say Afghanistan is also dealing with a vaccine shortfall exacerbated by a high level of hesitancy.
“Less than half a percent” of the country’s estimated 35 million population has so far been fully vaccinated against COVID-19, according to IFCR.
voanews.com/south-central-asia/coronavirus-breaks-out-us-embassy-afghanistan
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