Nine more coronavirus cases emerge from Karachi, raises Pakistan’s toll to 16

Nine more coronavirus cases emerge from Karachi, raises Pakistan’s toll to 16

KARACHI: In a single day, nine cases of the novel coronavirus have emerged from Karachi, revealed the Sindh health department on Monday, Geo News reported. 

The health official said that the number of persons who have contracted the coronavirus in Pakistan have risen to 16. One patient has successfully recovered and has been sent home.  

Six people infected with the coronavirus arrived in Pakistan from Doha via Syria. Three patients, on other hand, arrived in Karachi from London via Dubai. 

Sindh information minister Nasir Hussain Shah urged the public not to panic, saying that the nation had to “face the situation together and come out of this crisis”. He said that only 2% people infected with the virus had died. He said that only people with a weak immune system were susceptible to the disease. 

Earlier, the health department had reported about the fifth coronavirus case in Karachi. The infected person returned from Doha, Qatar earlier in the day, the ministry said, adding that the 53-year-old man is a resident of Karachi.

The man along with his family has been shifted to a quarantine facility, the ministry noted.

 The first person who contracted the novel coronavirus in Pakistan last week, was discharged from hospital on Saturday after he recovered completely from the infection.

The young man, who was the first coronavirus patient from Karachi and Pakistan, was sent home after fully recovering from the virus.

More than 3,800 people have died worldwide from coronavirus and there are more than 110,000 infections, according to the World Health Organization.

Task force on coronavirus holds meeting

Four others suspected of having contracted coronavirus also tested negative, Abbasi had said during a meeting with the provincial task force on coronavirus that was presided by Sindh Chief Minister Murad Ali Shah.

Shah had also directed government and private hospitals to share the record of all patients who had visited them with symptoms of pneumonia so that further medical investigations could be made to contain the coronavirus.

On the other hand, Additional Chief Home Secretary Usman Chachar had said the federal government was distributing health card and travel declarations — to record their travel history over the past 14 days — among passengers on international flights arriving in Karachi.

The task force was also informed during the meeting that 135 tests had been conducted in Sindh so far and that four of them tested positive while 112 were declared negative.

Separately, 230 pilgrims have been kept 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.

The chief minister was told that 59 suspected patients — who had travelled with four coronavirus patients in Sindh — had been traced and the list been shared with all the deputy commissioners to contact and conduct their necessary medical investigations.

12 suspected coronavirus cases test negative

Last week, the test results of 12 people — suspected of being infected with the coronavirus — had come out negative, according to the provincial health department.

A health department spokesperson had disclosed that of the two patients in Karachi, one’s family had been cleared of the coronavirus while the other’s was being kept in observation.

The Sindh government had on Sunday directed all public and private schools, colleges, universities, coaching centres, and other educational institutions to remain closed till March 13, while action was taken against those that refused the government’s order.

Teams raided schools located in the metropolis’ Landhi, Lyari, Korangi, Gulshan-e-Hadeed, and other areas of the city. The officials have also requested the secondary education board’s chairperson to initiate action against the said institutions.

No need to panic

The Sindh government had earlier set up a task force to deal with the coronavirus after the number of cases reported in Pakistan jumped to four.

On Saturday, Dr Zafar Mirza, Pakistan’s health minister, had said one of the two positive cases was reported in Sindh, while the other was in “federal areas”.

Speaking about the two earlier cases of coronavirus in Pakistan, Dr Mirza had said there was no need to panic as both patients were getting better. “One of the patients will be discharged from the hospital quite soon,” he had said.

Dr Mirza had disclosed that the infection had spread to Pakistan after cases were first reported in 47 countries. He said that the disease had affected people in the country last as the government had taken necessary precautions to constrain it. 

Article source: https://www.thenews.com.pk/latest/626539-karachi-reports-another-coronavirus-case-raising-sindhs-tally-to-five