The leaders of all five Central Asian states met in Turkmenistan on August 6, with the global pandemic and drastic changes in neighboring Afghanistan putting greater urgency on their talks.
With Afghanistan facing a wave of coronavirus infections, oxygen is in short supply at the country's underfunded hospitals. To help meet the demand, faculty and students at Kabul Medical University have built an oxygen-concentrating machine that pulls the vital gas from the air.
Millions of Afghans have no access to medical treatment as hospitals run out of beds, oxygen, and medical workers and the government focuses on fighting the advance of Taliban militants.
The COVID-19 vaccination program in Pakistan's Sindh and Punjab provinces is being hampered by a shortage of vaccine doses. People in Sindh's provincial capital, Karachi, were turned away after lining up in the sun for inoculations.
With rising infections and mounting death toll, a third wave of COVID infections could overwhelm Afghanistan already reeling from the precipitous withdrawal of foreign forces.
Many muslims gathered on May 13 in Islamabad's Faisal Mosque to attend prayers on the holiday of Eid al-Fitr, marking the end of the holy month of Ramadan, despite coronavirus restrictions urging people to stay at home or to keep at a safe physical distance while offering the congregational prayers.
Hundreds of businessmen in northwestern Pakistan gathered in Peshawar's historical Qissa Khani bazaar on May 7 to announce that they will not close their shops as instructed by the government in its efforts to limit the spread of the coronavirus.
Hundreds of teachers, students and owners of private schools converged on Islamabad from various Pakistani cities to urge the federal government to reopen their institutions. Schools were closed earlier in the week following an increase in the number of coronavirus cases in the country.
A spike in COVID infections in Pakistan has prompted authorities to reimpose restrictions just weeks after relaxing them. But traders and school owners have vowed to resist the new shutdowns, which they say target them unfairly.
People over 60 in the city of Karachi received COVID-19 jabs on March 10 as part of the second phase of Pakistan's vaccination campaign, which launched a day earlier. Pakistan started vaccinating its front-line health workers in the first phase of the program in February.
Pakistan Super League match in Karachi between the Karachi Kings and Quetta Gladiators on February 20 will mark the first time that spectators will be allowed in cricket stadiums since the start of the coronavirus pandemic.
Faisal Sultan, Prime Minister Imran Khan’s special adviser on national health services, spoke to Radio Mashaal about the country’s plans to vaccinate a majority of its estimated 220 million population.
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