covid-19 pandemic in afghanistan covid-19 pandemic in afghanistan the covid-19 pandemic in afghanistan was a part of the worldwide pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (covid-19) caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (sars-cov-2). the virus was confirmed to have spread to afghanistan when its index case, in herat, was confirmed on 24 february 2020. covid-19 pandemic in afghanistannumber of confirmed cases of covid-19 by province of afghanistan as of 24 december 2020. confirmed cases 1–199 confirmed cases 200–499 confirmed cases 500–999 confirmed cases 1000–4999 confirmed cases ≥5000diseasecovid-19virus strainsars-cov-2locationafghanistanfirst outbreakwuhan, hubei, chinaindex caseheratarrival date24 february 2020(3 years, 2 months, 2 weeks and 5 days)confirmed cases217,361recovered201,269deaths7,902government websitemoph.gov.af/en/covid-19-pandemic as of 13 may 2023, there have been 217,361 confirmed positive cases and 7,902 deaths. as of 13 september 2021, there have been 118,180 recoveries. kabul province has the highest number of covid-19 cases in afghanistan at 18,896, followed by herat with 9,343 cases, and then balkh with 3,431. however, on 5 august 2020, an official survey from the ministry of public health reported that approximately a third of the country's population, or roughly 10 million people had contracted covid-19. background origins on 12 january 2020, the world health organization (who) confirmed that a novel coronavirus was the cause of a respiratory illness in a cluster of people in wuhan, hubei, china, which was reported to the who on 31 december 2019. the case fatality ratio for covid-19 has been much lower than sars of 2003, but the transmission has been significantly greater, with a significant total death toll. model-based simulations for afghanistan indicate that the 95% confidence interval for the time-varying reproduction number r t was below 1.0 and falling from november 2020 to february 2021. mass returnees from iran and pakistan