KARACHI: Special Assistant to the Prime Minister on National Health Services Dr Zafar Mirza confirmed a report of nine more cases of coronavirus in Karachi, bringing the country’s total infections to 16.
In a social media website tweeter, he wrote “I can confirm 9 new cases of #COVID19 in Karachi. All these cases are contacts of an already confirmed case. Further contacts are being traced and tested. This makes a total of 16 cases in Pakistan”.
https://twitter.com/zfrmrza/status/1237103681390161922
Sindh health department officials said six of the new patients had returned to Pakistan from Syria via Doha, Qatar, while the other three reached from London via Dubai. Of them, a 53-year-old man a resident of the metropolis was moved to a quarantine facility along with his family.
The health authorities added at present least 16 infected people were under treatment the first patient of coronavirus, on the other hand, recovered last week and was discharged. In total, 16 cases of coronavirus have been reported all over Pakistan so far.
Provincial Health Secretary Zahid Abbasi had said early Monday eight of the 27 people who contacted the latest coronavirus patient had tested negative, while the remaining people were yet to undergo tests.
During a meeting with the provincial task force on coronavirus that was presided by Sindh Chief Minister Murad Ali Shah, Abbasi had said four others suspected of having contracted coronavirus also tested negative.
Health Secretary Abbasi had also instructed the government and private hospitals to share the data of all patients who had visited them with symptoms of coronavirus so that further medical investigations could be made in this regard.
Additional Chief Home Secretary Usman Chachar had said the federal government was distributing health card and travel declarations of verification of the travelers’ history over the past 14 days among passengers on international flights incoming Karachi.
Earlier, the task force was also clued-up during the meeting that 135 tests had been conducted in Sindh so far and that 4 of them tested positive while 112 were declared negative.
Separately, 230 pilgrims have been held in reserve in the quarantine at present. The isolation period of 63 of them would conclude on March 10, another 25 on March 11, and 34 on March 12.
