{"id":71219,"date":"2020-04-22T14:15:21","date_gmt":"2020-04-22T06:15:21","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.namnewsnetwork.org\/?p=71219"},"modified":"2020-04-22T14:16:37","modified_gmt":"2020-04-22T06:16:37","slug":"covid-19-afghan-president-tested-negative-after-palace-outbreak","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/?p=71219","title":{"rendered":"Covid-19: Afghan president tested negative after palace outbreak"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image\"><a href=\"http:\/\/www.bssnews.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/12\/Ghani.jpg\"><img src=\"http:\/\/www.bssnews.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/12\/Ghani-696x398.jpg\" alt=\"\"\/><\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>KABUL, April 22 (NNN-AGENCIES) &#8212; Afghan President Ashraf Ghani has tested negative for the coronavirus, an official said, days after news<br>leaked out of an outbreak among his staff.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cThe President is healthy and is leading government efforts on all fronts.<br>All precautions are in place to make sure his work environment is safe and<br>healthy,\u201d Ghani\u2019s spokesman Sediq Sediqqi said on Twitter.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Ghani and his wife were both tested and \u201cboth results are negative,\u201d he<br>added. About 20 workers in Kabul\u2019s presidential palace and a dozen more in an adjoining office had contracted the virus, officials said on Saturday.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Recent official photos had shown 70-year-old Ghani wearing a mask and<br>gloves, and mainly holding online meetings with officials.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>But on Tuesday a healthy-looking Ghani appeared on TV and urged Afghans to take the virus seriously.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cCoronavirus took all by surprise,\u201d he said. \u201cBut we, from the first days,<br>took this virus seriously and by the grace of God the number of fatalities in<br>our country is lower than in other countries,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Neighbouring Pakistan\u2019s Prime Minister Imran Khan will also be tested for<br>COVID-19, his doctor announced.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The test comes after Faisal Edhi, the owner and operator of Pakistan\u2019s<br>largest private charity, said he had tested positive for the highly<br>contagious disease. He met with Khan last week in Islamabad.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Pakistan and Afghanistan, where handshakes and close family gatherings are the norm, have both struggled to persuade citizens to practice social<br>distancing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>So far, Pakistan has confirmed at least 192 deaths from coronavirus and<br>Afghanistan 36, but many believe the low numbers are because of limited<br>access to testing. &#8212; NNN-AGENCIES<br><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>KABUL, April 22 (NNN-AGENCIES) &#8212; Afghan President Ashraf Ghani has tested negative for the coronavirus, an official said, days after newsleaked out of an outbreak among his staff. \u201cThe President is healthy and is leading government efforts on all fronts.All precautions are in place to make sure his work environment is safe andhealthy,\u201d Ghani\u2019s spokesman [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":11,"featured_media":71222,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[215],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/71219"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/11"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=71219"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/71219\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/71222"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=71219"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=71219"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=71219"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}