The Minister of Public Health has asked the Afghan people to avoid gatherings, inviting relatives and friends for greetings and buffets during Eid Al Fitr this year and celebrate the Eid at home under lockdown.

The Health Minister, Ferozuddin Firoz called on all families and members of the community to avoid the social visits tradition this year as Eid Al Fitr comes under the exceptional circumstances imposed by the COVID-19 pandemic.

Traditionally the festival at the end of the fasting month of Ramadan is marked with communal prayers in mosques, visits to friends and family.

The special Eid al-Fitr prayers are typically among the best attended of the year, and people also mark the occasion by holding parties.

As many as 8,145 COVID-19 infected people of people in Afghanistan are still receiving treatment and medical care.

Afghanistan’s total number of confirmed cases crossed the 8,000 mark as the Ministry of Public Health (MoPH) announced 492 new cases of the Coronavirus during the past 24 hours. MoPH officials the tally is now 8,145 total cases with 187 deaths and 930 recovered patients.

The maximum number of new cases were reported in the provinces of Kabul (262), Herat (59), Balkh (33) and Baghlan (30). The health authorities said 10 patients have died of the virus and 80 others have recovered over the past 24 hours.

Of the 143 samples tested in Herat province over the last 24 hours, 59 new cases have tested positive for the Coronavirus, said Afghan local health authorities.

The spokesman of Herat Public Health Department, Muhammad Rafiq Sherzai,said the new cases include 40 men and 19 women.

This takes the total number of confirmed cases of Coronavirus in Herat to 1,345 with 25 people dead and 201 recovered.

More than 200 doctors and medical staff took to the streets to protest their unpaid salaries in Herat, on Tuesday, reported Reuters. The personnel said they had not been paid for three months even as they continued to risk their own lives while treating Coronavirus patients.

A doctor told Reuters, “We have been risking our lives to save people, many doctors have been infected too. The government must at least respect us and pay (our salaries) on time.” After the six-hour-long protest, they all returned to work, saying they did not want their patients to suffer.

Herat has been heavily hit during the COVID-19 outbreak as their 10 government hospitals deal with shortages of medical personnel, testing equipment and protective gear.