Covid-19 outbreak hits US Embassy in Afghanistan

[Suze1 366]

Covid-19 outbreak hits US Embassy in Afghanistan

https://www.cnn.com/2021/06/17/politics/us-embassy-kabul-covid-19-outbreak/index.html?utm_source=twCNN&utm_content=2021-06-17T18%3A45%3A02&utm_term=link&utm_medium=social

 

Updated 11:45 AM ET, Thu June 17, 2021

 

(CNN) More than 100 people at the US Embassy in Kabul have Covid-19, one person has died, and several have been medically evacuated as a wave of the deadly pandemic hits Afghanistan and the US military withdrawal from the country continues.

"COVID-19 is surging in the Mission," an Embassy management noticed dated June 17 said. "114 of our colleagues now have COVID and are in isolation; one has died, and several have been medevaced."

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Edited June 17, 2021 by Suze1

[Crazy Cat 41,981]

Sad news......

[Adventine 3,201]

This is terrible news.

[top_secret 2,448]

Quote

"95% of our cases are individuals who are unvaccinated or not fully vaccinated," it noted. Eric Rubin, the President of the American Foreign Service Association, said his understanding was that the outbreak at the embassy was primarily among American embassy employees and contractors.

 

I don't know how many people there were in the US Embassy in Afghanistan but kind of shocking there were still over 100 unvaccinated individuals working there at this date.  It is particularly sad to hear of something like this that could have easily been avoided with very minimal effort.

[Suze1 366]

U.S. diplomats in Afghanistan on lockdown amid coronavirus outbreak

 

https://www.washingtonpost.com/national-security/us-diplomats-in-afghanistan-on-lockdown-amid-coronavirus-outbreak/2021/06/17/9198b936-cfbf-11eb-9b7e-e06f6cfdece8_story.html

 

By Dan Lamoth and  Missy Ryan

 June 17, 2021 at 8:21 p.m. EDT

Staff members at the U.S. Embassy in Afghanistan are on lockdown after an outbreak of coronavirus cases, U.S. officials said Thursday, an episode that has strained medical resources and compounded challenges for U.S. personnel as military forces withdraw.

State Department spokesman Ned Price said a local staff member had died and scores more had been infected in a “significant” outbreak at the U.S. Embassy in Kabul.

Price, speaking to reporters in a phone briefing, said the embassy had “adjusted operations to ensure the continued safety, security and health of our staff,” a move that has included requiring employees to confine themselves almost entirely to their quarters within the bunkerlike facility.

“We do expect that normal embassy operations will resume once embassy leadership is confident the chain of transmission has been broken,” he said.

The outbreak occurs as Afghanistan suffers a devastating spike in coronavirus cases, straining the country’s meager health infrastructure. Cases have risen 2,400 percent in the past month, and fewer than 1 percent of Afghans are fully vaccinated, Reuters reported.

According to the American Foreign Service Association, a diplomats union, 114 embassy employees have been infected by the virus. It said several personnel had been airlifted from Afghanistan and that some others were being treated in an “emergency covid-19 ward” at the embassy because military medical facilities were at capacity.

“At a time when the U.S. military withdrawal is accelerating, attacks on Afghan and Coalition forces are intensifying and the U.S. is seeking to establish a stable and positive presence in Afghanistan after the withdrawal, the damage to our national security and national interests is potentially grave,” the association said in a statement on its website.

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The situation at the U.S. compound grows more severe after several embassies in Kabul, including the American one, stopped consular services over the past few days, citing the coronavirus outbreak. The decision could stymie the issuance of visas to thousands of Afghan interpreters and other people who have worked for the U.S. government, despite threats by the Taliban.