The deadly fungal infection known as ‘black fungus’ that was first found in Indian Covid-19 patients has been detected in Afghanistan, which is in the middle of a terrific third wave of the coronavirus; Health Minister Wahid Majroh said Saturday. Afghanistan has recorded one death from the fungus, which has been detected in two other patients as well, he said.

In Afghanistan, where people don’t wear masks, and there is no social distancing, the numbers of new cases have been rising fastly, with 1,272 new cases in the past 24 hours and 92 deaths. The testing rate in Afghanistan is barely 4,000 a day. Since the pandemic began last year, Afghanistan has recorded 124,757 cases and 5,199 fatalities, but many cases are believed to be underreported.

In the capital Kabul, the health ministry has added hundreds of new beds for the infected patients, yet the capacity rate is still nearly 100 per cent. Afghanistan is also running short on oxygen, and peoples still wait for days for oxygen cylinders to be filled at the few production plants in Kabul. Meanwhile, barely 2.5 per cent of Afghanistan’s over 36 million people have been vaccinated, as the country has struggled to receive the promised vaccines under the United Nations-sponsored COVAX scheme. The fungal condition caught global attention in India and has surfaced in Egypt.