KABUL, April 3 (Xinhua) -- Pul-e-Khumri, the capital of northern Baghlan province is another city in Afghanistan that has been put in quarantine to contain the spread of COVID-19 in the country.
The decision has been taken in the wake of detection of two patients who have been infected with the novel coronavirus over the past couple of days and the daytime curfew would come into effect from Saturday.
Talking to reporters, acting governor for Baghlan province Abdul Qadim Niazi said on Friday that a 21-day daytime curfew will be put in place from April 4 during which all government departments and private entities except health facilities will remain closed.
The number of COVID-19 cases in Afghanistan, according to Wahidullah Mayar, spokesman for Public Health Ministry, has reached to 273 with the majority of the them in western Herat province bordering Iran.
According to Mayar, six patients have died since the outbreak of the virus in mid February in Afghanistan and 10 others have recovered.
To contain the epidemic, the government has put the capital city of Kabul and the cities of western Herat, Farah and neighboring Nimroz which border Iran in a three-week quarantine, calling upon the people to remain at home.
Mazar-i-Sharif in the northern region would also be put in quarantine from Saturday, according to local officials.
Afghanistan's Minister for Public Health Firozudin Feroz warned last week that COVID-19 could spread among 80 percent of the country's some 32 million population and could claim the lives of some 110,000 people if the threat is overlooked.
