Just yesterday, it was announced by the Sindh health department that a young man present in the province was confirmed to have tested positive for coronavirus – becoming the very first case of Coronavirus in Pakistan.
Shortly after such news, Mr. Mirza proceeded on to confirm the case in Karachi, as well as an additional one – both patients coming in from Iran.
Later as he addressed a light night press conference, Mirza confirmed that one of the cases was reported in Sindh, while the other was confirmed in “federal areas.” Moreover, the doctor also confirmed that both the patients had traveled to Iran in the past couple of weeks.
When the question was arisen, the doctor claimed that there are 15 suspected cases of the virus which are currently under investigation, while another 100 cases have been tested as negative so far.
He was quick to lay down advice for the public in order to ensure that there should not be panic resulting in. He said that people should “take precautions and show responsibility.” He also further urged the public to go to hospitals if they start to experience any of the reported symptoms or indeed contact the government helpline on 1166.
The first reported case in Sindh sees a 22-year old patient who traveled from Iran to Karachi by plane on the 20th of February. Ever since the news has came to light, he along with his family have been placed in quarantine while the Health Department is in the process of examining all the passengers that were on board the plane that he was traveling in.
This whole episode has also put down question marks for the government – as there were claims that it had actually installed scanner at airports in order to detect cases of Coronavirus.
The second case came to light after a spokesperson for Pakistan Institute of Medical Sciences (PIMS) in Islamabad claimed that test results for a patient who had traveled from Skardu are also positive.
Further claiming that while his condition is out of danger, the patient too had visited Iran just around a month ago.
Precautionary measures already on the horizon
While the whole episode continues, the Balochistan government has already acted in a precautionary manner by announcing the closure of all education institutions in the province until the 15th of March.
Such educational institutions include the likes of all government schools, madressahs as well as private schools.The Sindh government too has followed on with its own precautions – announcing that educational institutions based within the province will remain closed on both the 27th as well as the 28th of February.
