Law students and lawyers in Afghanistan are filing reports with JURIST on the situation there after the Taliban takeover. Here, a Staff Correspondent for JURIST in Kabul offers his observations on the rising incapacity of local health centers, stalling of international assistance to tackle the COVID-19 crisis and the lack of a transparent discussion on the same. For privacy and security reasons, we are withholding his name. The text has been only lightly edited to respect the author’s voice.

More than 3,000 public health centers have been closed due to budget constraints forcing people to travel from districts to provincial centers for treatments—sometimes in neighboring provinces. This has resulted in a financial predicament for individuals looking to get treatment.

Additionally, local media reports indicate that more than 30 COVID-19 centers have been closed, again due to budget constraints and also lack of health personnel. The COVID-19 status in the country is not just unclear, but there is not even an official discussion about it.

There is still no report or update on the number of people getting infected each day and the related death toll. To make matters worse,  international assistance has stalled with countries such as the US, China, Russia and India no longer delivering the much needed vaccines.