The war-ravaged Afghanistan has received testing kits for COVID-19 from the United Arab Emirates (UAE), the Afghan Ministry of Public Health (MoPH) confirmed on Friday.

The ministry said in a statement that the UAE has donated 1,000 set of special kits to test suspected cases of COVID-19 infection.

"The first batch of the items included 500 sets arrived in Kabul on Thursday. In total, the 1,000 donated testing kits would help Afghan health authorities to test 50,000 suspected cases," the statement said.

On Feb. 24, the MoPH confirmed the first case of COVID-19 in western Herat province.

As of Thursday, 26 suspected cases were reported across Afghanistan while 80 cases were tested negative for the infectious disease.