At least 289 pilgrims reach Sukkur quarantine centre

SUKKUR: In the wake of coronavirus pandemic, Sindh Chief Minister Syed Murad Ali Shah on Saturday declared an emergency and issued orders to form quarantine centres in each district of the province.

Murad Ali Shah while instructing the concerned officials to shift the pilgrims stranded at the Taftan border to isolation centres in Sukkur, added that the Sindh government have sent the special medical teams to Sukkur.

The Chief Minister further said that currently 289 pilgrims arrived in Sukkur from Taftan border in six buses and another 853 would come. Murad Ali Shah has said that those nationals returning from abroad had brought the disease to Pakistan.

Sindh Government’s spokesman Murtaza Wahab also said that the health officials have been swift to respond to the issues regarding coronavirus pandemic emanating from coronavirus by functional special hospitals with the capability of 120 beds and 16 ventilators in district Sukkur.

He said that the coronavirus patients would be quarantined at these hospitals and will be set aside in an isolation ward. State Minister of Health of Pakistan Dr Zafar Mirza had confirmed seven more Coronavirus cases of the community transmission of   Novel Coronavirus (COVID-19) in Pakistan.

The total number of positive cases jumped to 28 from 21 on one the previous day with seven people tested positive at the Taftan border.